


RWBY: Order of Seasons

by Semlix



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, Original Character Death(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-17 11:02:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 41
Words: 145,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9320681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Semlix/pseuds/Semlix
Summary: Cinder fall may have been defeated at the fall of Beacon, but a new threat is arising.  Join eight new characters on their journey to protect the world of Remnant from what lurks in the shadows.





	1. Trailer: Light

**Author's Note:**

> This is an else-worlds story, taking place in a reality where Cinder was defeated during the events of Volume 3.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trailer 1 for Order of Seasons

As the sun was setting over the city of Vale, Yang Xiao Long and her sister Ruby Rose tore down the streets of the seedier parts of town. There had been reports of activity by the remaining members of the White Fang, and the two of them had been tasked by Ozpin to check it out, as they, their other team members, and team JNPR were recognized for full missions despite still being students after the Cinder Falls incident. As they continued down the road, they approached their target. An old abandoned warehouse that had been marked as an old hiding place for the criminal Roman Torchwick. As they pulled up, they noticed two other people hiding nearby the warehouse. Yang parked her bike a few blocks away, and hopped off.

“Uh, Yang? Do you think those kids are supposed to be here?”

“I don’t think so Ruby. They don’t look like White Fang, and they aren’t dressed up in suits like Junior’s guys. But in any case, lets check it out!” Yang said and started making strides towards the strangers.

“Yang, wait!” Ruby cried out to no avail. Catching up to her sister, they leaned in on their two mystery people. Not noticing them, the two peered around a corner staring intently at the warehouse. Yang followed in suit staring, with Ruby showing clear signs of concern and confusion to Yang’s actions.

“So, you guys come here often?”

“GAAAH!!!!” the two strangers jumped back around the corner and faced the sisters. One of them pulled out a pair of billy clubs, while the other pulled out a farming scythe.

“Who….who are you?” asked the kid with the clubs.

“Whoa, chill out man. This is my sister Ruby, my name is Yang, and I have gauntlets that go bang! Eh? C’mon sis, you gotta give me that one!” Ruby merely face palmed, as did the child with the scythe, but the boy just laughed.

“Gauntlets that go bang. Good one!” He put his clubs away and motioned to the other one to put down the weapon. He got up out of his feared little crouch and shook hands with the girl.

“My name is Nathan. This is my sister Natalie. Sorry, didn’t mean to almost attack you.” Natalie stayed in the corner for a few more seconds, not sure how to feel about the situation. Suddenly, she vanished from plain sight.

“WHOA!” Ruby yelled out. “DID SHE JUST FADE FROM EXISTANCE OR SOMETHING?! THAT IS SO WEIRD AND YET SO AWESOME!”

“Oh, sorry about that. It’s her semblance. She’s very loving and outgoing once you get to know her, but due to her shy nature, her semblance is to not be seen. AKA, she becomes invisible. It’s okay sis. I think we can trust these guys.” A few seconds of silence followed.

“Are you sure we can trust them Nathan? They could be White Fang.”

“Look, they don’t look life Faunists, and even if they were, I’m pretty sure there would be more of them, and we wouldn’t even be talking right now.”

“Wait, what do you have against the white fang?” Ruby asked.

“It’s a long story,” Nathan said. “But the short version is, we don’t like them, and we want to take action.”

“Okay, but seriously, the billy clubs I can tell, are a great work of craftsmanship.” Yang said. “However, that Scythe? Ha. Even one of Junior’s men could tear it apart easily.”

“Hey!” Natalie said angrily. “I just happen to like this kind of weapon.”

“I don’t blame you.” Ruby chirped up. She then pulled out the Crescent Rose, and let it take full shape. Natalie almost couldn’t keep her jaw from hitting the ground.

“COULD I PLEASE HAVE SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!” She asked.

“Well, unfortunately, this is the only one I made.”

“Wait Ruby, what did you do with that prototype that you and Uncle Qrow made back at Signal?” Yang chimed in.

“Oh yeah. I think I left that back home on the island. If you’d like, I can give it to you once me and my sister finish up here.” Natalie nodded her head in agreement with excitement.

“Great!” said Yang. “Now that we have that all sorted out, let’s go sis. The White Fang bust isn’t going to bust itself.” She turned to leave, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

“Slow down Yang. We want dibs on the White Fang.”

“Sorry Nathan, but we’ve actually been sent here on an official mission. I hate to say it, but right now, you guys would be in the way of sanctioned Huntress business.” Nathan clearly seemed to be annoyed by this.

“Me and my sister can fight. Even if you tell us not to, we are going to do what needs to be done.” Yang felt a rise in the power of Nathan’s aura as his anger grew. She walked over to Ruby.

“What do ya think sis?”

“Well, I think if we let them help, we won’t be tripping over each other as much as we would if we let them be. Also, I think Professor Ozpin might be interested in these two.”

“Really? Ozpin might but Goodwitch….”

“Well you might want to decide faster sis, they’re heading straight for the warehouse.”

“What?” Yang turned to see Nathan and Natalie slowly sneaking away from the two of them. Yang, a bit upset, stomped over to the two of them and grabbed them by the shirts, hoisting them up, strangling them a little bit.

“OKAY! YOU CAN HELP! Here’s how this will work.” Yang dropped the two of them as she said this. “Nathan, you’re with me. We create a distraction for Ruby and Natalie to either blow up whatever they have in that warehouse or at least do some damage in case if they have more troops then we expected.”

“Great. Let’s rock and roll.” Nathan said as he got up. The four of them then started getting closer, as they approached the front door, Yang prepared her gauntlets for battle, and then just charged headlong into the front door. The doors burst open, causing the White Fang soldiers to react and nearly fall on their faces. Yang and Nathan rushed in, beating up anybody in their immediate range of vision. Yang used her gauntlets blasts to launch towards some of the enemies further back, while Nathan continued to fight the people towards the front. His form was astounding. His weapons were more of an extension of himself rather then what he solely relied on. He noticed a sniper up in the rafters, chucked one of his clubs toward the ceiling, hitting the sniper in the head; all the while he was busy beating up soldiers with his fists, his remaining club, and his kicks. Clearly, he didn’t skip leg day. As he finished with the last of his immediate area, another White Fang member attempted to attack him from behind, but the club from earlier fell back down to knock his enemy off balance, giving Nathan the time to turn and hit him as if he were hitting a baseball. He then started walking over towards Yang, who was finishing up with her batch of soldiers. They walked over to each other, a bit confused.

“Was that it?” Yang asked.

“Maybe. I don’t even know if Ruby or Natalie had to do anything.” Suddenly, a mech suit came plowing through one of the sidewalls, and on its fist was Ruby. She went spiraling down to the ground and landed at Yang’s feet.

“Ruby! Are you all right?”

“I’m fine…where’s Natalie?”

“What……?” Nathan asked.

“We were ambushed by that stupid suit, and then I lost track of her. I also lost my scythe in the fight…..”she didn’t get to finish her sentence as the mech started lumbering towards them. Nathan seemed to be even angrier then before, and he rushed at the mech.

“WHERE’S MY SISTER YOU MONSTERS?” He yelled as he started whaling away on the mech, but not really accomplishing much. Then, out of nowhere, his power spiked, and he managed to make a severe dent in the left arm. But suddenly, the other arm grabbed him and threw him across the room. Yang could feel it, Nathan had taken a much harder hit then he had been previously. It was as if his Aura had solely manifested in his weapons leaving his body wide open. Yang stood up, having helped her sister to the side, got ready to face off against the giant war machine. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the other arm of the mech was sliced off as if by magic. Yang looked around, and saw nothing that could have caused it. Then, in front of the mech, reappeared Natalie, with Crescent Rose in her right hand, and her old farming scythe in her left. She had a look of determination, one that showed no hesitation.

“Leave my friends ALONE!” she screamed as she sliced the mech right in half. She got up, and then rushed over to Nathan. Yang on the other hand, was too busy being absolutely stunned by what she just saw. Not even Ruby could do that most of the time!

“Well sis,” Ruby said a bit hoarse, “still think that Goodwitch would disapprove?”

“I’m pretty sure nobody would disapprove after that display.” She helped her sister stand up, and walked over to where Nathan and Natalie were, as Natalie helped her brother to his feet.

“Thanks for your help Natls.” Yang said.

“Yeah. Thanks a ton!” Ruby added. Natalie, slightly embarrassed, handed Crescent Rose back to Ruby, who put it back in its holster. “I definitely think you will like the weapon prototype that me and Uncle Qrow made.”

“You sure that’s all right?” Natalie asked.

“Positive.” Ruby responded. “Also, I have a feeling that Professor Ozpin will have an opportunity for you two when we meet him in a few minutes.”

“Wait, THE Professor Ozpin?!” Nathan exclaimed. “The head of Beacon Academy?”

“Indeed I am.” They all turned to see Professor Ozpin walking in with several Vale City Police Officers arresting unconscious White Fang members. “And I must say, your performance is more then exemplary. How would you like to attend my school, the both of you?” Nathan and Natalie’s collective jaws hit the floor with enough force to shock the whole room.

“WHAT?!” They both exclaimed. They started jumping up and down in excitement. They started hugging each other, then they hugged Yang and Ruby, then Professor Ozpin, and then any police they could get their arms around.

“And here I thought we were hyperactive….” Yang said.

“Yep. It’s going to be one interesting semester.”

“I just can’t imagine how Weiss will feel about dealing with another hyper pair.”

“Pretty sure they’re a bit more hyper then even us Sis.”

 

 _Four Similar in Nature_  
_Guided by the Light_  
_Hold Dear Your Bonds_  
_For the Winds of Change are Upon Us_  
_And the Line Dividing Light and Shadow_  
_Has Become Blurred_


	2. Trailer: Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trailer 2 of Order of Seasons

Blake Belladonna stood in the rafters of a warehouse in the outskirts of a town on the island of Patch. She looked down and saw Adam Taurus, her old friend and partner. After the Cinder Falls incident, nobody was exactly sure what happened to the White Fang and its higher ups, but it was clear now. They may have lost numbers, but they still had their most powerful members. Observing the situation, she noticed that they were starting to move some of their leftover crates of Dust from when they worked with Roman Torchwick to transportation modules. She moved across the rafters towards one of the nearby entrances. Preparing her blade, she was about to jump down to start fighting whoever she could while placing the charges, when all of a sudden, on the far side of the warehouse, an explosion opened up a hole in the side of the building, knocking several White Fang members flying. Then, out of the smoke screen walked two men. One wore a flowing open black trench coat, hands behind his back, and had a smirk on his face. The second wore a red jacket with brown pants and a combat vest beneath the coat. He held aloft a giant bazooka, but it started morphing into a giant Great Sword. They started walking straight into the warehouse. The White Fang members rushed towards them, and started firing their guns. Then the one with the giant sword raised his arm upwards and started blocking all the bullets at a great speed, and they all fell harmlessly to the ground.

“Ty my friend,” the one in the black coat spoke up, “go say hello.” Ty smiled, then started hacking and slashing through every single person in his way. Then, all of a sudden, somebody managed to get a bullet on him, and then everybody started blasting him in a circle, enough to kill a man many times over. But as the smoke cleared, Ty stood up with a noticeable amount of aura surrounding him. And he didn’t have a scratch on him. “Is that it?” At that point, all the enemies in that vicinity started backing up.

“My turn.” Ty then took his sword and morphed it into a bazooka. He then immediately started blowing up the immediate area. During the chaos, the one in the coat started walking towards Adam. “Adam Taurus. Last standing known leader of the White Fang. Under the will of the people of Remnant, I will see you destroyed.” While saying this, he drew two swords from their sheaths. One was as white as the sun, and the other as black as darkness. Adam simply laughed and snapped his fingers. Almost instantly, another White Fang member appeared out of nowhere, this member sporting a Lion’s tail.

“Leo, deal with this fool. I will prepare for the transportation of the Dust.”

“Of course master.” The young Leo said with a sick smile on his face. He lunged forward, having drawn his weapon of choice, a pair of aura knives that he wore like brass knuckles. Moving quickly, he attempted to take out his enemy with quick motions, but his opponent was moving even faster. With a swing of his left hand, he blocked both knives in the air, then with a twirl around his enemy, he sliced his leg so that he fell right down. Leo grasped his leg in pain, he could still walk, but it would hurt for a few weeks. Adam during this time had started taking a service elevator up towards some of the airships on a different level. Then something landed behind him. He turned to see what it was, and had to duck almost instantly as a swinging katana blade had almost taken his head off.

“Good to see you, Blake.”

“Wish I could return the sentiment.” Blake responded as she grabbed her sheath and started using her style of dual wield. The two of them clashed on the small elevator platform, then Blake decided to move to a more open space and jumped up to the second floor. Adam followed in suit, continuing their clash for several more blows. Then, all of a sudden, Adam managed to sneak in a shot at Blake with his gun sheath, knocking her off the ledge. She activated the grappling hook part of her sword, and latched to the side. She was about to launch herself back up, when something rushed past her. Looking up, she saw the stranger in the black coat running up the side of the wall with no Dust or equipment to help him. He was just simply running up the side of the wall like it was the normal ground beneath his feet. He got up to the second floor, and began to “fall” from the side of the wall. It was as if when he reached the top of the wall, he fell off it like it was a cliff. He then proceeded to dropkick a surprised Adam, which he followed by flipping back to standing upright as if nothing changed. Adam was about to continue his fight with his new opponent, but Blake jumped up to the side of the man in the coat, leaving Adam outnumbered.

“Well then, as much as I’d love to stay and chat, I’m afraid that this ends here.” He then grabbed his sheath gun, and managed to blast a hole in the ceiling, which in turn caused several Dust containers to start falling to the ground. Adam jumped down, collected Leo, and made his escape into the dark night. Blake turned to run, but then noticed that her new ally was doing something strange. He had his eyes closed, and his arms pointed outwards, two fingers on each hand pointing at the dust containers as if he was trying to focus in on them. Then, all of a sudden, the Dust containers stopped falling down, and began falling sideways. As they hit the wall, they began exploding. Several pieces of shrapnel started flying towards the opposite direction, one of the larger pieces started flying towards Ty. Blake was about to shout a warning to him, but the shrapnel hit him square in the head. As the dust cloud cleared, all that remained was debris, destroyed Dust containers, and a very much more annoyed than hurt Ty.

“Seriously dude? A little warning next time maybe?” Ty yelled out. Then he saw his friend on his knees, clasping his head. He quickly jumped up to the second floor.

“What’s wrong with him?” asked Blake.

“It’s his semblance. He has the ability to manipulate the gravitational pull of himself and objects if he so wishes. He can do it on himself with ease as long as he remains focused for a period of time, but when he uses it on other objects, it strains his body. Use it too much or for too long, he could knock himself out or cause damage to his internal organs.”

“What? What kind of semblance is that?”

“It’s one that like most, matches a personality.” The cloaked person said a bit wearily. “I am a man who is able to control my body and emotions, but when I try to control or command things outside my boundaries, then I end up hurting myself. In short, I reach outside my comfort zone, and I fall to pieces.”

“That’s horrible.” Blake said helping him up. He brushed himself a few times, and seemed to be right back to normal as if nothing happened.

“I must thank you for your help miss…?"

“Belladonna. Blake Belladonna.”

“A pleasure Miss Belladonna. My name is Miles Watson. And this is my friend, Ty “Dante” Boyer.”

“Dante?”

“Nickname. Don’t ask.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you both. If you don’t mind me asking, what is it that you two do? Are you students at an academy somewhere? Or are you already full fledged Huntsmen?”

“Ha! That’s a good one!” Ty laughed.

“We are more vigilantes then official lawmen Miss Belladonna. Doing what we can in order to protect those who can’t protect themselves.” Miles responded.

“Okay…. that’s literally the definition of a Huntsman or Huntress.”

“That may be so, however, as we operate outside the law, we are able to move much more freely. Without being bound by the government and without being held back by headmasters or officials, we are able to do what needs to be done quickly and efficiently. So forgive me for saying so Miss Belladonna, but what you do, assuming you are an official Huntress, is not enough. One must take actions into their own hands if they wish to truly make a difference. So for now, I bid you good day. Let’s go Ty.” They turned to go out the entrance them made, but then Miles felt a hand on his shoulder.

“You know, I once thought like you did for a little while. You see, I was once a member of the White Fang myself.” Miles turned around shocked at this revelation. Blake then proceeded to remove her black bow, revealing a pair of cat ears. “I was born into that life, and I believed that all I was doing was helping my people. But when they turned to violence, I believed that I needed to do what I could outside the law. I felt I was already a criminal, so why not play the part, but make a difference? But then I realized, I couldn’t do this alone. I couldn’t hide in the shadows, so I decided to become a Huntress, and do what I could to help the world in the light.”

“You say that Miss Belladonna, but you still operate within the shadows even now. You hide your true self behind an article of clothing. I saw a piece of your match with Taurus. Your semblance is that of an after image. Something that takes the hit while you hide and prepare for the next step. A most remarkable ability. And yet you treat it as a burden. Why?”

“It’s not a burden. It’s more of a tool. I’ve learned to walk the path between light and shadow. With my abilities and past creating my shadow, but the light of my friends keeping me alive.”

“The twilit road to nightfall. That is a road that many have tried to take, and failed to stay on. I have delved in that realm before, and things did not work. I will do what I do best, and stay in shadow.”

“Let me prove you wrong.”

“What”?”

“Enroll at Beacon Academy. Become an official Huntsman. Don’t walk the road to twilight. That’s not what I do. I walk the road to dawn. And I know that as a Huntress, I will always do what is the most honorable.”

“Then hold onto that honor Miss Belladonna. It is not something that many who walk that path still have. As for me, I have lost that honor long ago. This is my life now.”

“I said let me prove you wrong didn’t I? Go to Beacon, and if you find a new path, then it’s proof you haven’t lost your honor. If you prove me wrong, I will officially quit being a Huntress and join you and your friend as a vigilante. Just please, give this a chance.” Miles thought for a second, and then turned to her.

“No deal.” He turned to leave and then saw Ty standing right in front of him.

“I say take the offer.”

“And who said this was your call?”

“You may be the by default leader of this dynamic duo, but I still have a say in this. First off, I think it’s a great opportunity. It gives us a chance to actually do something legal for once, and it also is an opportunity to prove to the world that we are superior then the next generation of Huntsmen. Also, I’m sick of camping and staying in sooty hotels. I think this is our best chance to get some better housing and some better meals.”

“It’s always about the first world problems with you isn’t it Dante?”

“Says the guy who literally said on the way here that he hoped the White Fang had some decent food as opposed to the garbage of a casino.” Miles kind of winced a little bit as Blake failed to stifle a laugh behind them. Clearly embarrassed and upset, he turned to Blake once again.

“All right then, what do we need to do Miss Belladonna?”

“Well first, you can drop the Miss and just call me Blake. And second, come with me. I can get you two the official enrollment papers and make a sparkling recommendation for you two to Professor Ozpin. Then, you just have to survive initiation.”

“That’s it? Fine. We’ll get through this easy.”

“And then you have to join a four member team with three people who might end up annoying you for at least a year.”

“Already have experience with that last one, don’t I Ty?”

“HEY! AT LEAST I’M NOT THE ONE GETTING OWNED BY SOME CAT GIRL!”

“YOU HELPED HER WITH THAT LAST ONE!” Blake laughed some more as Ty and Miles continued to squabble.

 

_A Fallen Hero in Darkness_   
_A Former Criminal now Enlightened_   
_A Demon Slayer who goes with the Flow_   
_Three working in Shadows_   
_Stand now in the Light_   
_But what is left for those_   
_Who believe they have lost all Hope?_


	3. Trailer: Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trailer 3 of Order of Seasons

Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren continued to walk through the Forest of Forever Fall, but all the while continuing to be on alert. Ever since the Cinder Fall’s Incident, more and more Grimm had been making bolder moves towards the boarders of Vale. Since the situation was an isolated incident, the Grimm had all but abandoned their surroundings of other cities and towns, making life much more difficult for the Huntsmen and Huntresses both official and students in training. Alongside that, with the recent activity from the last remnants of the White Fang, sleep was a very rare thing for most who were considered exceptional.

“OH MY GOSH REN, I AM SO TIRED! I mean, seriously, we’ve been out here for like 10 minutes and hardly anything has happened! I mean, come on, Ozpin told us there would be Grimm out here for us to fight, but all I’ve seen is nothing but orange, orange, and more orange!” Nora continued to rant and rave, while Ren just simply rolled with it. At this point, he was used to her constant complaining, and even agreed with her a bit as he too was tired and bored since the two of them and their teammates had been completely swamped with missions within the last few weeks. Even Pyrrha, their most skilled member, had been showing signs of fatigue within the last few days. So the two of them kept walking, and continued to have no luck in finding any packs of Grimm, which lead to Ren’s eardrums becoming ready to explode from the sheer amount of nonstop talking from Nora.

“And I mean SERIOUSLY! It’s great that Jaune and Pyrrha are finally dating and all, but even THEY have to deal with all this bull as well! I mean, you and me finally put two and two together and start going out, but just as we start doing so, BOOM! WORK WORK WORK WORK WORK!!!!! I just want a chance to have a nice night out with you and a chance to get some sleep and some pancakes, and some…

“NORA!” Ren shouted, which caused Nora to take a few steps back caught off guard. Ren sighed, with his hand on his forehead.  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just, please. My complaints are the same as yours, so you don’t need to scream them all at the top of your lungs.”

“Sorry Ren. Didn’t mean to ramble on like that.” Ren looked back at her with a small smile on his face.

“Eh. I’m used to it.” Nora giggled a bit at this and the two of them continued on their way, surprisingly, without saying many words at all. As they got further into the forest however, their frustrations began to form once again. Nora was a bit less irritable this time, but Ren knew it wouldn’t be long until she started another one of her talking sprees.

“I mean come on! At least the White Fang missions would have had something to DO! But here, we’re literally just walking about, waiting for something to happen, and so far NOTHING has happened!” She pulled out her hammer and whacked a random nearby tree. Ren took a few steps back because he knew that no matter what he did or said, it wouldn’t matter. She just needed to get this out of her system. But then a most curious thing happened. When Nora swung her hammer, rather then hit the tree, she rather stopped a few inches away, with her hammer right over a rock. As she pulled her hammer away, in that area where she hit, it seemed that paint started to melt away from that specific area, revealing a person in place of the rock that used to be there. A person, who while was still breathing, had clearly taken the full brunt and force of the hammer.

“OH MY GOSH ARE YOU OKAY?!?!” Nora shouted as she rushed over to the stranger.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Another voice called out. Suddenly, dropping out of a tree was a small, blonde haired girl. She held in her hand a pair of twin mini shotguns, with an axe tip sticking out of the bottom. Nora put her hands up in the air and dropped her hammer.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to! I was just letting out frustrations about life and didn’t even see him! I didn’t even know he was there!”

“Christy, it’s all right.” The injured man spoke up. Christy ran over to him, holstering her weapons, and then placed two hands on his chest. As she did this, a glow emanated from her body. Then, like flowing water, the light traveled down her body and into the other person. He let out a deep breath, and then slowly got up. Christy then turned to Nora, and pulled out her weapons once again, but this time they had morphed into two axes, each about 2.5 feet long. She started marching towards Nora, blades to the ready, with a look that she wasn’t willing to talk or forgive, and slashed down at her. Nora, too shocked and overridden with guilt, didn’t even make a move to block the blow. She closed her eyes, willing to take the full brunt of the attack and hoping that her aura would be enough defense. But no attack came. She opened her eyes and saw the other stranger had blocked the axes with a golden gauntlet. 

“Christy, you know as well as I do, I was in my illusion state, and was just as much as fault for getting smacked as she was. I don’t think that randomly attacking people is going to solve any problems here.” Christy lowered her axes, took a deep breath, and then lowered her head.

“Sorry Evan. You know how I feel about things like this.”

“I know, but I keep telling you, I can take care of myself.”

“Yes I know but still….” The two of them continued talking all the while Nora was just standing there completely confused. Then Ren walked up next to the three of them and placed his hand on Evan’s shoulder.

“I apologize for my friends lack of self-control, but could you possibly please tell us who you are and what you are doing here?”

“Of course. My apologies. My name is Evan, and this is my girlfriend Christy. We have been sent out on a mission to exterminate Grimm by Professor Branwen at Signal Academy.”

“Branwen? Isn’t that Ruby’s uncle?”

“You mean that Qrow guy? C’mon Ren, I don’t think that HE is the type of person that would do well as a teacher.” Nora chimed in.

“He did help with the Cinder Fall incident, so there’s that.”

“Yeah, but still….”

“It doesn’t matter Nora. What matters is that it seems our two missions have fallen in alignment with each other.” He then turned to Evan. “We have been tasked from Beacon Academy to exterminate Grimm as well. Did your professor give you any information as to what types of Grimm to expect?”

“Not exactly. He just told us to “go kill some monsters. It’s good exercise” or something like that.”

“Sounds like something somebody related to Ruby would say. What say we just work together and make our jobs a lot easier?”

“That suits me fine. Christy?” Christy looked at Evan, then looked at Nora, then nodded her head.

“You fine with this situation Nora?” Ren asked. Still a bit upset about earlier, she just nodded her head yes as well.

“Very good then. It seems we have an arrangement. By the way, we never properly introduced ourselves. My name is Lie Ren, and this is my girlfriend Nora Valkyrie. My apologies for not doing so when you two introduced yourselves.”

“Eh. No harm no foul.” Evan replied. “Now then, shall we continue?” Ren nodded, and the four of them continued on their stroll through the forest. As they were walking, Nora walked over to Christy.

“Hey, I just wanted to say I’m sorry for what happened back there. I didn’t mean to hurt him. I mean, I didn’t even know he was there.”

“That’s okay. I definitely overreacted. It’s just, I’ve had this thing in the back of my head ever since he got himself seriously injured that tells me, “don’t fail him again” or something along those lines. Heck, I found my semblance because something horrible happened to him.” 

“Really?”

“You see, I’ve never been good at fighting. I’m still not that great to this day. But I tried to enroll and endure a Fighting Academy because I didn’t want to be alone and just standing on the sidelines. I wanted to help people in whatever way I could, and the only way I knew how, was if I became a Huntress. But since I couldn’t use my aura, I’ve always had to be doing nothing but staying back and mainly just shoot enemies from sniper positions. I didn’t like it. I felt like I was just sitting there while everybody else fought for me. Then I met Evan. He helped train me a bit, but not even he could help me discover my Semblance. But, at least we found each other.” Christy kind of stopped talking for a few seconds, seeming like a cartoon in love, and almost floating in the air for a few good feet. Nora looked at Christy kind of strangely, then back at Ren.

“Am I ever this bad when I mention you to somebody new Ren?” 

“In a way. You just replace all the visual with verbal.” Nora pondered this for a second, and then agreed. She then tapped Christy on the shoulder to bring her back down to the ground.

“Ah yes. Where was I? Oh of course. So we started dating like, for real. Then came a certain mission. We had gone out with Professor Xiao Long, and things turned ugly rather quickly. The Professor got knocked aside and surrounded by Beowolves, and an Ursa claw had impaled Evan. And then, it happened.”

“OOH! IS THIS THE PART WHEN YOU GO SUPER SAIYAN AND DESTROY ALL THE GRIMM?!” Nora asked excitedly.

“No. I ran over to Evan, Professor Xaio Long destroyed all the Grimm in two steps, and I was clasping the slowly dying body of Evan like I was trying to keep him from falling.” Nora looked at Christy confused, then looked back at Evan. Then leaned over to Christy and whispered,

“Is he a zombie? I mean, he’s standing there right now, right? That would explain how he survived my hammer though…”

“Yes, he was dying, but then I passed out. When I woke up, they told me that I had pretty much poured out whatever Aura I had left in my body into his to heal his wounds. We didn’t understand it at first, but through practice at the local hospital and with smaller injuries, we figured out my semblance was Healing.”

“Wow. I’ve never heard of a semblance like that. I’ve always seen a Semblance that is cool and awesome and sometimes containing explosions!” Nora then looked back at Christy, who was clearly bummed out at this information.

“Even still, I guess healing can be a…helpful Semblance!” Christy kind of smiled a bit at this.

“I’m sorry about earlier. I, just…. you know.”

“Hey, I understand. Don’t worry about it too much.”

“Hey, it’s great that you two made up and all,” Ren said as he and Evan walked in between the two of them, “But if you take another five steps, you are going to walk into the range of a Nevermore.” The two girls looked up and saw a giant Nevermore flying in the sky preparing its piercing feathers attack. Everybody dived for cover with their respective partner, and drew their weapons.

“Have you ever faced one of these types before you two?” Ren asked.

“Not in our experience, no.” Evan replied back. “You two”

“For a brief instance during initiation, but that was taken care of by another team. But if I recall correctly, the neck is the weak point. I suggest me and Christy distract it with gunfire while you and Nora knock it down to the ground.”

“We can do that. Shall we begin?” Evan replied before rushing toward the Grimm, with Nora in hot pursuit. Behind them, Ren and Christy started blasting the Nevermore from a distance. The beast was able to take the hits, but was also unable to really move anywhere. Evan started jumping from tree to tree and managed to land on the back of the Nevermore. He started slashing away at the neck, using his spear like he was wielding a quarterstaff, but also a sword at the same time. However, he didn’t make much progress. He was about to do another slash when he had to jump out of the way of Nora’s hammer as she brought it down on the Nevermore’s head. The Grimm started to wobble, tried to keep itself aloft, but was knocked to the ground when Evan and Nora both blasted the beast with their gun forms of their weapons. It fell to the Earth, and crashed right next to Ren and Christy. As it began to stir, Ren quickly jumped up and slashed the neck with his gunblades, and Christy followed up rather quickly, slicing off the head of the beast with one of her axes. The head slowly rolled away from the body, as the Grimm began fading from existence.

“I’ll never get used to that sight.” Evan said as he walked towards the rest of the group.

“You’ll have to. It’s part of the job.” Ren replied. “Anyways, I do believe that we should be heading back now. It would seem that there are no more Grimm in the immediate area and….” He was cut off by Evan drawing his spear back out and throwing it straight at Ren! Only, without Ren needing to move, it whisked past him about a few inches away from his head, and managed to impale a Beowolf right as it was about to attack the group.

“Okay, now it’s done.”

“So, CHRISTY YOU WERE DOING GREAT OUT THERE TODAY!” Nora shouted.

“You really think so?”

“Um, hello? You kind of BEHEADED A NEVERMORE!”

“I did, didn’t I? THAT’S SO COOL!” The two of them continued to chat and express their excitement. Ren walked over to Evan and placed his hand on his shoulder.

“On a scale of one to ten, how loud and annoying can she be sometimes?”

“Eh, I’d give it about an 8.5. How about your lady friend?” Ren chuckled at this.

“Nora breaks every record and rating system ever known to man when it comes to talking.” They both laughed and joined the ladies as they started to make their way back to civilization.

“So what’s the plan for you two once you get back to Signal?” Ren asked.

“Hopefully, we can get permission to move on to Beacon Academy when the new semester starts up next fall.” Christy chimed in.

“That’s GREAT!” Nora exclaimed. “We can TOTALLY give you two amazing recommendations to the professors!”

“Is that okay?” 

“OF COURSE IT IS! You guys are going to LOVE IT at Beacon! The people, the weapons, the pancakes…”

“Pancakes?”

“Don’t expect any syrup if you end up being behind Nora in line.” Ren chimed in. They all started laughing and continued walking into the sunset.

 

_Hopeful hearts filled with love_   
_Hopeful minds flooded by dreams_   
_One, a desire to be stronger_   
_Another, an ambition to protect_   
_Noble pursuits each in their own right_   
_But all that can be for naught_   
_Without proper Balance_


	4. Trailer: Balance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trailer 4 of Order of Seasons

Weiss Schnee walked towards the stands. She had been tasked by Glynda Goodwitch to go to the Mistral Regional Tournament held at Sanctum Academy to scout out possible new students who would be interested in attending Beacon. Pyrrha was originally slated to complete this task, but she had to back out due to several more missions being put on her and the rest of team JNPR’s plate. Weiss was a bit annoyed at this because today was the last day that Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias would be at Beacon before they returned to their home kingdoms since they were no longer needed in this part of the world since the Vytal Festival ended. Also, since Sun hadn’t really come to Vale legally, he had to leave or else things would have gotten extremely out of hand. But Weiss was mainly upset at the fact that Neptune was leaving and probably wouldn’t be back for a long time. Not only did it mean that she wouldn’t see him for a while, but it also meant that without her there to whack him over the head, he would start flirting with other girls as soon as he got back to Heaven Academy. She shuddered at this thought, although it didn’t totally surprise her. Despite them having an on/off relationship, he always had to play the cool guy. Weiss took her head out of the clouds and sat herself down and watched the first few preliminary rounds. Then, the head of Sanctum stepped out and welcomed everybody to the main event.

“While we are sorry to say that the legendary Pyrrha Nikos is not able to join us today, we are equally honored to have one of the Huntresses in training who was essential in the defeat of Cinder Fall here amongst us today: Weiss Schnee!” A spotlight ended up being pointed straight at Weiss causing her to blush a little bit. Regardless, she stood up, and curtsied thanking the audience. She was happy that now the rest of the world wasn’t just looking at her as an heiress to a large sum of money, but rather as someone who was willing to put everything aside for the sake of the people. She sat back down as the Headmaster began speaking again.

“Allow me to go over the rules of the tournament. It will be a one-v-one style bracket. However, there is a loser’s bracket, so each fighter will need two losses before they are eliminated from the tournament altogether. Here at Sanctum, we teach students how to work in two man teams before they evolve to the four man teams of the higher Academies. However, today they will learn to fend for themselves as well as face off against their own teammates. To ensure that there will be little to no chance of teammate VS teammate in the finals, the entire first round will be made up of teammates facing each other. The winner moves on through the winners bracket, while the loser will continue on throughout the losers bracket until we have the champion of each side face off in one big final battle. For now though, lets welcome the fighters!” There was an eruption of applause and excitement throughout the stadium, as the 32 fighters made their way onto the platform. They all smiled and greeted the audience, all but a few of them. Three of them were just a bit shy and weren’t very open. However, another one of the few who just stood there had a look of impatience. She had a shield and no visible weapons on her person. She was then elbowed by a taller gentleman who looked more like a wandering samurai that had come straight out of an anime. He leaned over and whispered something in her ear, and she reluctantly started waving towards the crowd. Weiss chuckled a little bit, understanding that it wasn’t out of fear she didn’t wave, but of pride. She probably would have done the same thing in that situation if she wasn’t so prim and proper like her father raised her to be. As the opening ceremonies concluded, they began the random fight selection. Since the entire bracket was predetermined, all that remained was picking who went first. The wheel was spun in front of the entire audience. After the realization that all the matches were fixed during the last Vytal festival, they introduced a system to truly randomize the matches. Each fighter or team would receive a color or item to signify their group, and the spinner would determine the result in a truly random and fair event. As the wheel spun, the first few fighters were selected. The battle was rather quick as the person with the giant Gatling gun tore apart her opponent who had nothing more than literally a pair of knives. The wheel was spun once again, and the red tile came up.

“Next match: Rank 24 Brooklyn McPherson VS Rank 1 Jacob Strohl!” The crowd got excited as soon as the announcer mentioned Jacob’s name. Weiss made sure to pay attention to this battle with great interest. The two fighters walked out into the ring, and took their respective positions. Brooklyn then took out her weapon. It was a shield. Not much else to it as far as Weiss could tell. On the other hand, Jacob wielded a katana. It looked a lot like Jaune’s sword in that it seemed like it was impossible for it to transform into anything else. Around his waist, he had a utility belt that looked like it was ready for combat. The two fighters assumed ready positions and waited for the bell. As soon as the bell tolled, Jacob rushed straight towards Brooklyn, causing her to block his attack with her shield. She then sent an electrical current through the shield and attempted to fry Jacob and end it super quickly. However, noticing this, Jacob immediately leapt backwards and threw two kunai into the ground. As soon as they hit the ground, a large amount of steam appeared. As the steam spread, it ended up covering about two-thirds of the arena, forcing Brooklyn to the edge. She then morphed her shield into a wrist-rifle that extended longer then her arm, and then launched several projectiles into the air. This resulted in Lightning Dust creating a ring around the steam and almost creating bars of lightning strikes to keep her opponent in. Then she switched cartridges and blasted a gust of wind to blow away the steam. Standing right there in the middle was Jacob, completely calm and prepared for whatever Brooklyn had in store. Brooklyn smirked, and clenched her fist on the grip of her weapon, and the circle of lightning began to close in on Jacob. But Jacob continued to stand there. Smiling. As the lightning clouds continued to close in, Jacob began running towards Brooklyn. Anticipating, she turned her weapon into a scimitar armband, and got closer to the closing circle. Then something happened that nearly made Weiss fall out of her seat. She could see it, but just barely. There were short brief instances where there would be an opening in the thunder strikes. And as if he was moving faster then the lightning itself, Jacob continued his run towards Brooklyn, and then as if he could see the lightning strikes, dodged his way out of the ring of lightning, and began engaging Brooklyn. With several sword strikes, the two parried, but it was clear Jacob had the upper hand. He started slowly whittling away at her Aura level. After two minutes of this, he had taken her Aura level down to about 23%. He then smirked and took a few steps back, motioning Brooklyn to come at her.

“Oh you arrogant son of a….” Brooklyn didn’t get to finish her sentence as she began hacking and slashing as much as she could at Jacob. However, nothing seemed to hit him. He didn’t use his weapon for defense nor attack. He just simply dodged and weaved as if he was simply dodging a child. He then spun around before she had time to react, and hit her with the hilt of his sword. She then tumbled to the ground, looking like the fight was finished. Jacob turned to leave, the crowd roaring and chanting his name. But Weiss noticed something. Brooklyn’s Aura levels were still over the 15% threshold of standard tournament rules and regulations. As such, Brooklyn began to slowly get back up. Her anger caused her to give off an Aura burn similar in nature to that of Yang’s. She then rushed straight towards Jacob, who hadn’t even noticed her approach. She then immediately started going ham on him. She was slashing away at him, and he had no time to prepare a defense. His aura levels plummeted quickly. 80%. 60%. 30%. Just as she was about to place the final blow on Jacob, he pulled out another one of his kunai. He then immediately threw it on the ground, and the result was explosive. Literally. Weiss with her expansive knowledge of Dust instantly realized that there was a Fire Dust crystal hidden within the kunai, and it had the properties of a grand fire explosion if the situation called for it. As the dust settled, Jacob was still standing, but according to the board, he still had about 18% Aura left. However, Brooklyn’s had plummeted to about 3%. The bell was rung to signify the end of the match, and the crowd roared. Jacob smiled and waved at the crowd, then walked over to Brooklyn to help her back up. Brooklyn however, didn’t return the sentiment, and slashed at Jacob. Jacob jumped back from this, as Brooklyn got back up and charged at him again. Jacob continually dodged and parried her onslaught of attacks, but even Weiss could see that Brooklyn was stronger than she was just a few seconds ago. Officials quickly jumped up on the stage and surrounded Brooklyn. She was about to slice right through them as well, before she regained her senses. She looked up at the board and saw that she had lost. She then slammed her weapon on the ground in frustration.

“NOT AGAIN!” She screamed in frustration for the entire audience to hear. As they escorted her off the stage, there was an announcement.  
“The committee of rules and regulations has come to a decision. The actions of Brooklyn McPherson are being attributed to not realizing the end of the match. She will be allowed to continue in the losers bracket.” There was a bit of a buzz around the stadium. Some of it positive, most of it however, questioning the decision. As the tournament continued, Jacob continued to dominate the competition. He made it all the way to the winners bracket final, and qualified for the grand final. Meanwhile, Brooklyn did extremely well in the lower half of the bracket. She made it all the way to the final four, but lost to the runner up of the winners bracket right before the grand finals. Jacob then made quick work of his opponent, and was crowned champion. Then the main speaker got back up on the podium.

“Thank you for attending today’s event! All spectators please drive home safely. As for scouts, please make your way to the locker room and have your Scroll ready for identification.” The announcer then left the stage and Weiss made her way over to the lockers. There was a long line at the front, but Weiss scanned her Scroll at the back of the line, and suddenly an employee walked over to her and motioned to her.

“Since you are the famous Weiss Schnee and you are here in the place of Pyrrha Nikos, Sanctum Academy would like to offer you first interviews with some of the students! Any you wish to speak to first?” Weiss thought for a second, then said,

“I would like to meet the champion of this tournament and his teammate please.”

“Of course Ms. Schnee. Right this way.” She then led Weiss past all the scouts and recruiters. As they made their way into the lockers, a lot of people were already lining up to meet with Jacob. As Weiss entered the room, the attendant stood at the door and mentioned,

“You have ten minutes. Please make the most of them.” And shut the door behind her. She walked in and saw a fully dressed Jacob sitting in the center of the room.

“Ah. Weiss Schnee. A pleasure.” He then stood up and shook her hand. “My apologies. My teammate is changing right now. She will be out momentarily.”

“Is that truly necessary Mr. Strohl? I am here mainly to interview you for the chance of enrolling at Beacon Academy.”

“I’m afraid it’s a bit more complicated then that Ms. Schnee. You see, the two of us agreed that we would both go to the same Academy together.”

“Why’s that? Are you two dating or something.”

“YOU OWE ME 20 LIEN JACOB!”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” Weiss looked a bit confused at this. “We placed a bet with each other. She said that whenever I mentioned that the two of us want to attend the same Academy together, the scouts would all assume it was because we were dating. But that is DEFINATLY not the case. We’re rivals, and we want to continue to test each other until we officially graduate. And we determine who is truly the better of the two of us.

“What’s the record again Jacob” Brooklyn shouted from the changing room.

“I think today made it 71 wins, 23 losses and 32 draws for me.” Brooklyn walked out fully dressed, counting on her finger.

“What was the 71st time?”

“Today?”

“No, I thought that was 70. I mean, there was today, then a few days ago, what else?”

“Um, I’m on a bit of a time crunch here so if you could please save this for later?” Weiss piped up.”

“Ah yes, sorry about that. So if you do have any reason as to why you think we should attend Beacon Academy Ms. Schnee, I’m anxious to hear it.”

“Well, it’s got some of the best fighters in the history of Remnant, right now the students are gaining experience with the largest Grimm population in history, and Pyrrha Nikos attends there as well. So, there’s a few of the basics.”

“Great. Well then, thank you for your time Ms. Schnee.”

“Wait that’s it? I still could sell you both so much more about Beacon.”

“You don’t have to. We already decided to go there before the tournament even began.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Brooklyn chimed in. “We’ve had this idea that we could test his and my Semblance against others who have a Semblance that is either similar or counteractive to ours.”

“How so?”

“Well, my Semblance is that I gain power through my “refuse to quit” mentality, similar to that of Yang Xiao Long, while Jacob’s Semblance here is a sort of time manipulation crossed with increased reflexes.”

“Time manipulation? Is that even possible?”

“It’s not.” Jacob pointed out. “It’s like Brooklyn said, it’s more of a increased reflex situation. My Semblance is that I can increase my brains response time and make it feel like what I’m seeing is happening in a much slower motion while I am still able to move at full speed. So let’s say I was fighting Miss Ruby Rose, who’s main attribute is speed. While my ability is powerful, it is limited, and could be countered by something moving much faster then even my heightened senses could keep up with.”

“So……”

“I can see things happen at pretty much half speed or slower while still maintaining my own speed to stay two steps ahead of the situation.”

“Although he mainly uses it to show off.” Brooklyn added.

“Oh come on. It was so we looked much more glamorous and epic for the pictures in the paper tomorrow! How cool will the shot of me ducking beneath your scimitar look as the front page of the Sanctum Dispatch?!”

“Not as cool as me totally KICKING YOUR BUTT!”

“Hey, I thought we agreed that it would be my win and you could just beat everybody up through the losers bracket, beat me in the final, then we could go at it for real.”

“HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT GUY HAD A DEFENCE SEMBLANCE?!”

“Um, by watching my match from earlier?”

“I WAS GETTING A TACO, SUE ME!” The two of them continued to banter on for another few minutes, while Weiss was just standing there not sure how to take it in.

“So, I hate to interrupt this…whatever this is, but I just need to know one last thing before I leave here today.” The two of them stopped talking and turned towards Weiss. “Why choose Beacon? I know why I did it, but that is completely different from your perspective. So why choose this Academy out of all the others? I know you mentioned Yang and Ruby, but is there any other reason?”

“Well to be perfectly honest with you,” Jacob said, “It’s because it’s where we need to be right now. What with Cinder Fall having caused a huge horde of Grimm to pretty much forget about every other kingdom in Remnant and focus solely on one single kingdom. It needs all the help it can get. And even if we go to some other academy, the Vytal Festival re-issue is going to be later this year in Vale again anyways, so why not be where the battles will be taking place?”

“And also, the students there are legendary. Yang Xiao Long, Ruby Rose, Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune Arc, and you Ms. Schnee, just to name a few.” Brooklyn added.

“Well, I’m flattered, but I’m still a student, just like you two. I still have a lot to learn. But, I guess you did answer my question, so I’ll leave you two to the rest of the scouts. Even though I guess it’s pretty much pointless since you two have already made a decision.”

“Of course. Thanks again for your time Ms. Schnee.”

“Oh, call me Weiss. After all, we’ll be classmates this coming fall!”

“I guess that’s true.” Jacob said with a smile as Weiss left the room.

“Are you sure about this Jacob? I mean, we do have other options for academies.”

“That’s true, but if we want to become stronger, we need to go to where the darkness is gathering. Only there can we make a true difference.” Brooklyn groaned and put her hand on his shoulder.

“You have to go all philosophical on me, don’t you?”

“Only way you remember anything I say.”

“Fair point.” They both laughed as the representatives from Atlas came in next.

 

_The stage is set_  
 _The pieces have assembled_  
 _But something is waiting_  
 _Waiting for the time to be right_  
 _There are those who gain power while in the spotlight_  
 _But this enemy is waiting_  
 _Hiding in the shadows and growing stronger_  
 _The White Fang are nothing more then a piece_  
 _In the game that the Order is playing._  
  
  
  
  
_RWBY_  
 _Order of Seasons_


	5. Episode 1: Chapter 1: Underestimated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 1 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

As the airship touched down, the new students began piling into the main cabin. Then they started sitting down as the airship took off once again. As it did so, some news channels came on to keep students occupied. The airship still had to make a stop on the island of Patch before they could move on to Beacon. Several students were gawking at the view of downtown Vale as they flew past it on the way to the island, but Natalie was too busy gawking over her new weapon, Blue Wavecrest. It was a two-sided scythe that had the same design as Crescent Rose, except blue and there were to sides to it. She was holding it like it was her precious and no one could have it.

“Seriously Natls, you should check this view out!” Nathan said excitedly.

“Eh, not as neat as this amazing weaponry!” She said as she continued to just hug it like a plush doll. Nathan placed his hand on his forehead.

“Look, at the very least, if your are going to obsess over that weapon, at least practice with it. The last time you swung that thing around I thought you were going to take Ruby’s head off.”

“But, where can I practice with all these people on board?”

“There’s a balcony on the second deck isn’t there? I believe there’s even a sparring platform as well. Check the directory or something. Go just, do your thing I guess. It’s not like I’m going to convince you to, oh I don’t know, talk to people you’ve never met before.”

“You know me so well.” Natalie said sarcastically. Nathan responded with a bop on the head and she just smiled. She then put her weapon away in its holster, and put her hood up, doing her best to avoid anybody in the way. She finally made it to the elevator, and made her way up to the fighting deck. She smiled, pulled out her weapon and started practicing some of the routines that Ruby and Qrow had given her before they left for Beacon. As she was practicing, there was a lurch beneath her feet as the airship began to descend onto Patch. She collected herself though, and continued with her training.  


 

As the doors opened, Evan and Christy made their way into the already busy airship. It seemed that most of the good seats had already been taken.

“Well that’s just fantastic.” Christy said. “It’s finally time for us to go to Beacon, but they have SO many people they can’t even fit a few students from a small freaking island onto the ship!”

“Patience Christy. I’m sure that if we play our cards right we can find a seat with a really nice view of the City as we fly over it.”

“I guess you’re right Evan.”

“HOLY COW! EVAN, IS THAT YOU?!” Evan turned towards the shout and saw his old friend, Nathan Grover sitting right by the window, waving his hand excitedly. He grabbed Christy’s hand and quickly made his way through the crowd towards him.

“Nathan! Buddy! It’s been far too long!” Evan said.

“No kidding! It’s been, what? Two years now? Maybe three?”

“Either way, it’s been a while. Great to see you!” He said as he hugged him.

“So, who’s your friend here?”

“Oh, this is actually my girlfriend, Christy! We’ve been dating for about a year or so now?”

“It’s been one year, two months, and ten days. But who’s counting?” Christy joked. The three of them laughed at this.

“So how’s your sister doing Nathan? She go back to Signal since you seem to be heading to Beacon?”

“Actually no. She’s going to be attending Beacon alongside us!”

“WOW REALLY?! How did she pull that off?”

“Right place at the right time I guess. Plus we ran into Ruby Rose and her sister as well as Professor Ozpin during our adventures.”

“HOLY COW! THAT SOUNDS SO AWESOME!” Christy yelled.

“Actually, she’s up on the upper deck doing some practice right now if you want to see her.”

“Sounds great Nathan.” Evan said. “Lead the way.” They turned to head to the elevator, but saw there was a bit of a crowd of people trying to get up there, and they heard what sounded like a fight going on right above them. Not sure what to expect, they quickly forced themselves to the front of the line and got on the next elevator up.  
  


 

Miles and Ty loitered around for a bit as people were getting on, waiting for the opportunity to get on without having to deal with all of the traffic.

“See Miles? This is already a nice upgrade. A few weeks ago we would have needed to spend at least two days walking just to get to the port, THEN stow aboard a ship, THEN spend at least another day or so walking just to even get to Beacon! Here, they just pick us up, and off we go.”

“Oh boo hoo. Walking. Let me play you a sad song on the worlds smallest violin.” Miles said sliding his fingers like it was a string instrument. “But in all seriousness, let’s just get up to the battle deck already. I swear, all these people just excited to see a few buildings confuses me to no end.” As they made their way towards the elevator, the heard a lot of yelling coming from a person who looked like he wielded a pair of billy clubs or something. Letting it slide, Miles opened up the elevator doors and pushed the button he wanted. As they made their ascension, he pulled out a small speaker from his back pocket.

“What’s that about?”

“How cool would it be if I blasted the Avengers theme from the top of the ship, all the while the wind causes my cloak to flap in the wind?”

“You do that all the time with your gravity semblance. And didn’t you want to do it to the imperial march or something?”

“Yeah I tried that, but I want to see how the Avengers theme works first. Besides, it’s not like there’s going to be anybody up here. All the students are probably too busy gawking at the “amazing sights” down below.” As the doors opened, the first thing they noticed when they walked out was the strong wind. While it was still the summer months, the chill of autumn was present in this wind. The second thing they noticed was that there was already somebody up here. The person wore a blue cloak, similar to Miles’, but a bit more flowing. Also, the hood was up, so they couldn’t get a good look at the face. Miles could clearly tell however, he or she had an interesting style of fighting. A style that had some clear and dangerous flaws. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the sheer size of the weapon, or if it was just the lack of skill. He decided to enquire further.

“Excuse me?” Miles yelled, but clearly the person didn’t hear him. The wind was too loud for even the loudest of shouts. So, Miles made a motion to Ty, who drew his sword and morphed it into Bazooka form, then launched a projectile right past the stranger, creating an explosion an easy 30 yards away from where the person was standing. But the shock of seeing a giant bazooka projectile and a large explosion happen in quick succession caused the person to fall flat on their back. The person turned around and yelled,

“WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!” Miles chuckled a little bit and started walking towards the stranger.

“Attempting to get your attention by merely talking wasn’t working, so we did what we thought best and look. And here we are. Now we have your attention.”

“YOU COULD’VE JUST TAPPED ME ON THE SHOULDER!”

“Yes, but I find this much more dramatic, don’t you?” He offered the stranger a hand up, but instead of taking it, the person just vanished. Taken back by this, Miles drew one of his swords, but then realized what was going on.

“Aha. An invisibility Semblance. Most extraordinary. But why hide when the whole world is out there for you to see?” 

“What?” Ty walked over to Miles with a confused look on his face.

“You know, since she has an invisibility Semblance, I figured we could go all poetic with the situation.”

“Seriously dude? For one, there’s no point since we don’t know why she has that Semblance, and two, are you sure he or she hasn’t just left the deck yet?”

“Nope. Because if our hidden friend had, then the Elevator doors would have opened right up, and that person would be long gone from here. Also…” he then turned, drew one of his swords back out, and did a horizontal slash that was clearly infused with Dust as the slash expanded to about as wide as half the airship. But as the slash reached the middle, it seemed to stop in a single location, and dissipate altogether. “…then he couldn’t have stopped me from slicing the airship in half.”

“…You gambled with the lives of hundreds of students just to prove a point?”

“Hey, at least it looked cool.” Miles then put his sword away and walked over to where the blade had stopped, and the stranger had started to re-appear. Miles could now see the strangers face, as it appeared that the force of the strike caused the hood to be blown off, and he could now see that it was a very young girl. She was on one knee, holding herself up barely with her weapon. She got herself back up, and was clearly annoyed.

“WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT FOR?”

“Like I told my friend, to prove a point. But forgive me, where are my manners. My name is Miles Watson, and this is my good friend, Ty “Dante” Boyer.”

“The demon slayer? How did you manage to become friends with him?”

“Long story involving Grimm and Mario Kart. But that’s beside the point. Might I ask you your name?”

“I’m somebody who is going to stay away from you the rest of the year.” The stranger said as she put her hood back up and started walking towards the elevator.

“What is it you are so afraid of? What made you what you are?” The stranger stopped at the doors as Miles said this. “Childhood trauma? A fear of being hated or disliked by others? Or perhaps a fear that you aren’t good enough to be here at Beacon with the rest of us.” The girl turned and gave Miles a glare with enough hatred to make the wind seem like it died for a few seconds. “Huh. Looks like I hit a nerve. Well then, shall we have you attempt to prove me wrong?” He started walking towards the center of the deck, and drew his white sword. “I’ll go easy on you. Try to humor me even if just for a few seconds.” The stranger, not saying a word, slowly got up and walked towards Miles with a brisk pace. She stood at the center, ready for battle.

“First move is yours, Tails.”

“What?”

“You know, like from Sonic the Hedgehog? The fox? You two share the same name.”

“Do we really?”

“You didn’t ever realize that Miles?” Ty asked.

“Meh. Whatever. Ty, if you would be so kind as to referee this match for us please?” Ty walked over and held his Scroll out. The two of them pulled out theirs respectively, and held it over Ty’s. Then their aura levels and stats were immediately transferred into Ty’s. The two fighters then took a few steps back to the starting circles that had been drawn onto the floor, and took their ready positions. The stranger wielded a two-sided scythe, while Miles only used his white sword in his left hand.

“You sure you want to use that style Miles?”

“Trust me, it’ll be all too easy” he said with a smirk.  


 

As the doors opened, Nathan tried to work his way past the large crowd of people that had gathered, and finally managed to get to the front. What he saw was nothing more than astonishing. His sister Natalie going toe to toe with some guy in a flowing black trench coat wielding her giant weapon with relative ease. Evan and Christy finally caught up with Nathan and were agape at the fight taking place. It was beautiful. Natalie was moving around like the weapon was a part of her body. She spun and sliced like there was no tomorrow. Her opponent was just as impressive. He used his sword with efficiency and great finesse. It looked at first like the two were evenly matched, but then Nathan noticed something.

“He’s already completely read her rhythm.” He said.

“What do you mean?” Evan asked.

"Everyone and everything have a rhythm to their movements. It’s like handwriting. The key to winning a fight is countering that rhythm. And it’s clear, this guy has got a number on Natalie’s rhythm.”

“Is there any way around it?”

“Not unless she completely changes her style, and since she just started learning how to use that weapon, I don’t see it happening anytime soon.”

“We don’t know for sure just yet” a new voice added to the conversation. “After all, anything’s possible.” The three of them turned, and saw another old face.

“Jacob Strohl! Great to see you again!” Evan exclaimed.

“And you as well. And Nathan! Glad to see you’re finally going back to the official academies!”

“Yeah, well when you get free tuition, then it’s hard not to pass up. Oh by the way, who’s your friend?”

“Ah. This is Brooklyn. She’s my…”

“IS SHE YOUR GIRLFRIEND?!” Christy immediately asked. Groaning, Jacob pulled out his wallet and handed Brooklyn 20 Lien, which she happily accepted.

“No, the two of us are rivals. And from the looks of it, this match might create a brand new one. That is your sister, correct Nathan?”

“Yeah. Although I have no idea who the guy she’s fighting is.”

“Either way, it looks like it’s going to be an interesting conclusion.” Jacob surmised.  
  


 

Natalie continued to swing away at Miles, not making much progress. She could see it in the way he moved and smiled. He wasn’t having any issue whatsoever during the fight. He was just trying to prolong the inevitable, maybe give her a fighting chance? Or perhaps make it look like she has a chance before he completely destroyed that notion? She shook those thoughts from her head, and continued to press on. She decided to take a different approach to the battle, and split her weapon in two. Now she wielded twin scythes instead of just the large whole. Miles just simply smirked at this, and pulled out his second sword. Then he turned towards Ty.

“How much Aura she have left?”

“According to this, about 30%. You’re sitting great with 90%. Just wrap this up quickly. I think we’re about to land soon.”

“Not a problem.” Miles replied as he dodged a slash from Natalie. Natalie continued to get more annoyed. He wasn’t even taking this seriously at all. She continued to try and gain the upper hand, but nothing seemed to work against this guy.

“Huh.” Miles then suddenly said. “Maybe those fears are actually reflective of reality.” Then, as soon as he said that, something snapped inside Natalie. She then took her two scythes and did an interesting maneuver. She did a head on attack at Miles, and then vanished. Miles assumed this was just a ruse for him to panic, so he just morphed one of his swords into a pistol and started firing straight ahead, expecting that she didn’t change course. Surprisingly, none of the bullets hit his opponent. He then morphed his weapon back to sword form, and waited for the upcoming attack from his opponent. Then, all of a sudden, a whole string of strikes came out of nowhere. Left and right, she was moving faster than he could defend. Not sure how to react, Miles tried to anticipate the next move, but more and more, he kept getting hit and he felt his aura depleting. He then started to panic. He then made a spinning motion with his blades, and an aura bubble surrounded him. It spread about 20 feet in diameter. Then Natalie re-appeared, floating inside the bubble. She was just stuck in mid-air, like she was a balloon or something. She struggled to find out how to get out of the mess she was in. Miles then looked up and saw her again, and pulled his sword back for the finishing blow. Natalie, acting quickly, re-formed her weapon as one, pointed it at the ground, and fired a shot that sent her flying out of the bubble and back onto the ground where she could stand. After taking a second to regain her balance, she then stood back up to face off against Miles, but saw he had completely collapsed on the ground, coughing up blood. Ty had immediately started running towards him with looks of great concern.

“You idiot! You can hardly survive that move when you have 100% aura!” Natalie holstered his weapon and rushed over to him, as did most of the crowd.

“What’s wrong with him?” Natalie asked.

“That’s not important right now! We need a doctor! Fast!” Ty started to pick Miles up, but Christy stopped him. She placed her hands on him and poured out her aura into his body. It took a few minutes, but Miles finally stopped bleeding. He slowly got up, a bit dazed from the experience.

“How….how did you do that?” Miles asked Christy.

“I’m a healer” she replied. “That’s my Semblance. But what about you? What caused all that?”

“It’s the move he did” Ty answered. “On its own, his Semblance damages his body whenever he uses it on someone or something other than himself. But when he does the Gravity Bubble move, then things get really bad really quick. Last time he used that move, he was at 100%, and that caused severe internal bleeding in his lower chest. Now, I can’t even begin to imagine what might have happened if you hadn’t helped. Thank you so much.”

“Of course.” Having said this, Christy then walked over to Natalie and helped restore her Aura to a decent level. Then Nathan and company gathered around her and started smiling.

“Holy cow Natls!” Nathan started, “You managed the comeback of the century!”

“I’ll admit, I’m impressed,” Evan added. Your skills have grown since I last saw you.”

“See Nathan? I told you the battle could change in an instant.” Jacob taunted.

“Says the guy who LITTERALLY can just dance around without getting hit and can pretty much see the future.” Brooklyn joked. They laughed at this and then realized that the airship had begun its final descent to Beacon. All the students that had gathered at the top began to leave, as did the others.

“Wait.” They turned to see Miles slowly getting back up. “I underestimated you kid. Trust me when I say that won’t happen again.”

“That’s fine.” Natalie replied. “Because I’ve got these guys to back me up!” Everybody behind her smiled, and gave Miles a look that would make anybody flinch. But he didn’t. He just continued to look at Natalie.

“What’s your name?”

“My name is Natalie Grover.”

“I’ll make sure not to forget it…until I defeat you.” He turned away, and the other group headed towards the elevator. As Miles stood out on the edge of the ship, Ty walked over to him.

“You okay man? You haven’t used that move ever since we faced the group that….”

“I’m fine. I panicked. That’s all.”

“You? Panicked? How did that happen?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. But there’s something about her. Something that reminds me…. of what I used to be.”


	6. Episode 1: Chapter 2: Start Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

The airship finally touched down and the six friends got their first look at the prestigious Beacon Academy. It was inspiring. Despite the damage done to it by the attack on it during the Cinder Fall incident, Glynda Goodwitch and her team had put it back together seamlessly. As everybody started walking towards the amphitheater, some clouds started to roll overhead. As quickly as they appeared, the clouds suddenly erupted into a rain shower. A lot of the new students started quickly running for cover in the amphitheater, but to not much success. Then, a pool of water started forming over those still outside the enclosure. Then that pool formed into more of a shield of water, stopping the rain from falling on those still outside. Looking over, they saw a faculty member who looked more like he was Nathan’s age than anything. 

“All right children! Just keep on moving!” the stranger said in a bit of a sarcastic tone. He wore a pair of glasses and had on a run-down beach hat. He had in his hand what looked like a whistle.

“BEANIE!” Nathan shouted with excitement! The stranger turned to them, and then gave smiled from ear to ear.

“NATHAN! EVAN! JACOB! HOW ARE YOU GUYS?” He started walking towards them, and then the giant pool of water started falling towards them, which he quickly caught once again with a sharp whistle.

“Hey Jacob, who’s this?” Brooklyn quickly asked.

“Ah. Forgive me” Jacob said. “This is Eric Hallfrisch. But we all call him Beanie.”

“….Why Beanie?” Asked Christy.

“Even I don’t really know that one.” Evan answered. “And I’ve known him for all these years.”

“Anywho, what are you crazy kids doing here at Beacon? You all becoming students here?”

“Yep” Nathan said. “We’ve all been accepted. Even Natalie here was accepted to….” Nathan never got to finish his sentence, because Natalie was gone. He could feel her hiding right beside him, but couldn’t see where she was looking, as she was invisible. “Natls, it’s okay. It’s Beanie for crying out loud!”

“That’s not what I’m hiding from.” Looking over towards the airship, Nathan now saw that Miles and Ty were only about 15 feet away from them, with Miles looking on with confusion. The two of them started walking towards the others, and then joined their little circle. A few seconds of awkward silence followed, then Miles finally spoke up.

“You know, when you told me you were getting a job as a lifeguard Beanie, I thought it was for an actual pool.”

“Holy cow, Watson? What are you doing here?!” Everybody then turned and kept looking at the two of them completely astonished.

“YOU TWO KNOW EACH OTHER?!” Natalie yelled, having revealed herself standing right by Miles. Taken back by her yell, he jumped back a foot, then quickly collected himself.

“Wait, you guys know Beanie also?”

“How could we not?” said Nathan. “We grew up together in one of the towns here in Vale!” 

“We attended school at the local general education building together until we hit Combat Academy age.” Jacob added.

“And he was such a teachers pet that he ended up getting a job as an intern for Glynda Goodwitch.” Evan finished off.

“Yeah…I already knew that….”said Miles.

“HEY!” Beanie yelled. “Extremely talented and teachers pet are two different things that may have played a factor in me getting this job!”

“Says you.” The six started laughing, and even Miles himself chuckled a little bit.

“Uh, hey Miles? I’m a little lost here.” Ty spoke up.

“Ah. Yes. Beanie, this is my friend Ty. He grew up in Vacuo. Ty, this is Beanie. He grew up in Aequo just like I did.”

“Wait, YOU grew up in Aequo?” Natalie yelled.

“By your reaction, I guess we all have a place that we used to call home.” There was a few seconds of silence, and then Brooklyn stepped forward.

“Look, this is definitely something we need to talk about later, but in case you haven’t noticed, we are kind of all alone out here.” They all started looking around, and realized she was right. Everybody had already made their way into the amphitheater, and Glynda Goodwitch was marching towards them with an annoyed look. They immediately started running towards the doors, while Beanie took the giant pool of water he had collected and threw it into the river below the cliffs. As the eight of them made their way inside, there were very few open spots left. Miles made a sharp right turn, then started walking up the wall a short ways and “laid down” for the lack of a better term. It looked like he was just sticking to the wall like he was lying on the floor. Ty stood next to him on the ground, while the main six were forced to stand right in front of them. Natalie made sure to distance herself from Miles as much as she could. Then Professor Ozpin stepped up to the podium and turned on his microphone.

“I’ll keep this brief. You are all here because you want to learn how to fight monsters. You want to become stronger, to gain knowledge, and to discover more about yourselves and what you hope to accomplish in life. But in time, you will realize that this profession goes beyond yourselves. You can’t always rely on your own strength to get through life. This will be most prevalent tomorrow during your initiation. Be ready.” He then walked off the stage, and Professor Goodwitch took his place.

“You will all sleep in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow at promptly 9:00 A.M. you will board the transport for your initiation. Be ready.” With that said, everybody started walking towards the ballroom.

“SERIOUSLY?! WE RUSH OVER HERE FOR LIKE 30 SECONDS OF TELLING US WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW?!” Natalie yelled, clearly upset. Jacob put his hand on her shoulder.

“Patience young one. Not everything has to be a big, long and grand speech. Although it did feel a little preachy to be perfectly honest.”

“Oh please.” Miles said as he dropped down from the wall. “It was just his way of saying “It’s all about teamwork” and “The overall goal of being a Huntsman/Huntress is to protect the people” and all that good jazz.” Miles looked at Jacob who was looking at him like he was stupid.

“It’s called sarcasm knucklehead,” Jacob said. “Most of us don’t need it explained out loud.” Natalie started chuckling at this, while Miles was clearly flustered. He then turned and started quickly walking away towards the ballroom, Ty close behind in suit. Then the other six realized that once again, they were the last in the room, and quickly started heading towards the ballroom as well.

 

  
The sun had finally set, and people were setting up sleeping beds for the night. A few people were still up just chilling and talking, others were finally winding down and falling asleep. Once again, the ballroom was divided into the two genders just to make things easier, but there were still people from both sides hanging out. One of these groups was a bunch of people who were playing “Soaring Ninja 2” and had a huge tournament going on. Jacob was totally dominating the competition, while Natalie managed to hold her own, but still was knocked out. There was a second screen for games outside the tournament, so she went over to that. She started playing, and was winning fight after fight after fight.

“I call next.” She turned and half expected to see Miles standing right behind her, but instead it was Ty. He sat down and pulled out his Scroll, and started the game. The two of them were pretty evenly matched, but Natalie managed to sneak out the win.

“You’re pretty good.” She said.

“Yeah. Still lost.” The two of them chuckled a little bit. A few people behind them started getting annoyed waiting for their turn. Ty then logged his Scroll out to let the next fighter in, and then Natalie followed in suit feeling a bit tired and ready for bed.

“Hey, sorry about my friend/boss earlier.”

“Your boss? That doesn’t sound very friendly. Most people can’t stand their bosses.” They both laughed at this, but then Ty took a bit more serious tone.

“Tell me, how long had you and your friends lived in Aequo?”

“Where’s this coming from?”

“It’s just that Miles won’t ask or care about it unless I bring it up to him. You see, he actually was living there at the time of “that” incident.” Natalie stopped walking.

“We lived there our whole lives.” She said. “My brother was gone when it happened.”

“Anything else you remember? Like who it was that was attacking?”

“I’m sorry. It was about seven years ago now. I don’t really remember it all that much.” Natalie said, clearly uncomfortable.

“All right. Sorry to bother you.” Ty said as he started walking away.

“Wait. Ty, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks for talking to me. You know, instead of blasting a bazooka by my head.”

“Actually, I was the one who fired that rocket past you.” Natalie gave a look of confusion.

“Why shoot if you knew you could just talk to me?”

“Look, Miles is a huge drama queen. And normally I wouldn’t go along with it, but frankly, it doesn’t really bother me.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He’s just a guy with some ideas of grandeur, and just comes off in the wrong way.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m just saying, don’t hate him. He’s a kid, just like all of us. He just thinks that he doesn’t deserve friends after what happened during “that” event.”

“Really? What?” 

“Well…” suddenly a black sword appeared right at Ty’s neck. Standing behind him was Miles, with a look of clear anger.

“Ty, what have I said about revealing my backstory to people you sympathize with?”

“Look, you scared the kid half to death, nearly beat her to a pulp, and pretty much declared her your rival all in one airship ride. I’m pretty sure at the very least she needs to know she won’t be killed in her sleep tonight!” Miles chuckled a bit at this, then put his sword away, and walked over to Natalie. She took a step backwards at this.

“I’m sorry. I guess I got too carried away today. I’ll be honest; you do have a ways to go before I can even say you’re on my level. But, you do have what it takes to be here. You aren’t just some kid. You’re somebody who’s willing to fight for what is right. I respect that.” He stuck his hand out for a handshake. Natalie looked down, then back up at Miles. Then looked over at Ty.

“Is he bipolar or something?”

“Nah. One minute he could think he’s a warrior of light, the next minute he thinks he’s one of those crazy anti-heroes destined for loneliness or something. Just like every anime character ever.” The two of them started laughing, leaving Miles, once again, fuming with embarrassment.

“Ugh. I’m going outside.” Miles said as he walked away. Natalie then walked over to Ty, and shook his hand.

“When he’s done pouting, let him know I accept his apology.”

“Will do.”  
  
  
Miles stood out on the guardrail of the Ballroom, the wind now having a warmer feel to it. He hung his head down. What was it about her that caused such a shift in his mind? He tried thinking back to that day seven years ago, but again couldn’t focus on anything but that moment. He slammed the guardrail in frustration and turned to leave. He only took two steps before he ran into something, or rather someone, and fell right over. He looked up and saw Blake standing right above him, giggling a little bit at him as he scrambled to try and get back up, but promptly fell right back onto the ground. She offered him a hand up, which he reluctantly accepted.

“Wow. Only known you for a solid few days and I’ve already got you falling at my feet.” Blake joked. Miles held back the urge to come up with a retort because he knew none of them would work.

“What do you want Blake?”

“Hey! You actually used my first name this time! That’s progress!”

“I’m not in the mood Blake. Can you please let me go back inside?”

“Look, I know today was a bit of a long one for you, but in all fairness, you started it. I mean, some random girl on the flight deck is practicing, and you launch a bazooka rocket at her, insult her honor, and almost try and kill her? What were you thinking?”

“Honestly, nothing at first. The bazooka thing was just me being a jackwagon, but then when I saw her face, something about it was familiar. Like I’d seen it before.”

“How so?”

“Well, apparently she and I lived in the same village. But, that’s not what bugs me. I see something in her eyes. It mainly struck me when I basically insulted her honor as your said. She looked not like somebody who would want to hide, but somebody who would want to tear me into pieces.”

“Well, that’s normally the common response to something like that.”

“Yeah, but it’s like she found some hidden power. Like she knows it’s what most people think, but she’s willing to fight against it. Change her destiny if you will.”

“…Okay that made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.”

“It doesn’t make much sense to me either. I guess…she just reminds me of when I was able to fight for my friends.”

“You have Ty, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but he could take care of himself if he really wanted to. I call him my “friend” for public speaking because, well in reality, we don’t know that much about each other. All he knows about me is that I was apart of the Aequo incident and all I know about him is that he has some connection with the Great Demon Slayer Huntsman Vergil. But other than that, it’s just been us going about our business trying to take down the White Fang.”

“What is your business with the White Fang? I never got that part from you.” Miles sighed, and then turned back towards the guardrail.

“I really don’t like talking about it.”

“Maybe if you told me, it could help you figure out what it is that’s bothering you so much.” Miles looked over at Blake who now had her hand on his shoulder, then lowered his head.

“I honestly don’t remember that much. I always end up focusing on one particular part. They had captured my family and all the neighbors and rounded them up in the town square. I was hiding, trying to figure out what to do. Then I saw him. Adam. He was giving orders to everybody, and had his back turned to me. I could have killed him right then and there. I could have cut him right in half, but then I thought I could save everybody. I thought I had the strength. The speed. But I was wrong. As I tried to save them, Adam killed all of them right in front of me. He just, ended them. Right then and there. After that, I don’t remember much. I think the Atlesian military showed up soon after or something. But all I know is that since I didn’t kill Adam when I had the chance, now there are hundreds more dead now and probably hundreds more before we even get close to capturing and killing him.” There was a few seconds of silence after Miles finished. Not sure what to say, Blake leaned on the railing as well and looked to the stars.

“Look, you can’t always know what your actions are going to create. I mean, take me for example. I was trained by Adam to be a killer. I was trained to fight by the person who’s now become my most hated enemy. But without him, I couldn’t have found the path I’m on now. We can’t predict the future. We can only do what is right in the here and now.”

“And here I thought I was preachy.” The two of them laughed as some of the awkwardness finally dissipated. “Thanks Blake.” 

“For what?”

“I guess, for just being willing to listen to me. Or at least for making an effort to. Not many people are willing to just talk to me in general.”

“I’ve found that it’s usually not that people don’t want to talk to you, but rather they are waiting for you to talk to them.”

“Heh. Beats me. Look, the thing is, I just don’t deal with people very well. I sometimes feel like I’m imposing myself onto others rather than joining the conversation.”

“Look, we could argue this until the sun rises, but you need some rest. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for everybody in that room. Yourself included”

“Ha. Fighting a few Grimm, I can handle no problem.”

“Careful though. The first person you make eye contact with in the forest is your partner for the next four years.”

“Fine. I’ll just keep an eye out as to where Ty lands.”

“Not going to be that simple. Trust me on that one.”

“Fine. We’ll see what comes to fruition tomorrow. My view of looking ahead, or your idea of the here and now.” 

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“I don’t know. Fit the discussion I guess.” They both turned to leave, Miles heading back inside, Blake using her weapon to hop back onto the roof and make her way back towards the dorms. As the two of them left, a small figure appeared out of thin air and stood up. After looking out at the stars, Natalie decided it was time to turn in for the night.

 

  
As the sun rose the next morning, Evan started putting his gear on, preparing for initiation.

“Remember Christy, even if we don’t end up being teammates by the eye contact rule, we could still end up on the same team as long as we figure out this years Relic system.”

“Yeah yeah. You keep reminding me even though you’ve told me like A THOUSAND TIMES!”

“Just making sure you’ve got it memorized.” Evan said tapping her forehead. She knocked his hand away sheepishly and blushed a little bit. She then grabbed her two axes and put them in the holsters, and made her way to the transport. Evan started following in suit, then noticed Nathan and Natalie.

“Hey, how you two feeling this morning?”

“I’m feeling like I’m ready to crash some heads!” Nathan yelled in excitement! “Meanwhile, Natls here is still being all, well, Natl-ey.” Natalie was busy just sitting there deep in thought.

“Hasn’t she always been like this though?” Evan asked.

“Well, before yeah. But then when we hit the road she became a lot more open to adventures and the like. Now she looks like she’s contemplating the answer to life or something. Hey! Earth to Natls!” Natalie snapped her attention towards her brother, and realized he was all ready to go.

“Oh. Sorry Nathan. I’ll be right with you guys.” She quickly got up and grabbed the last of what she needed. She made sure all her cartridges were loaded and there was one full clip on both sides of her weapon. As she got up, she saw Miles and Ty conversing together as they started heading towards the transport. She started to walk over to them when a hand was placed on her shoulder.

“Hey, don’t worry about that guy.” Brooklyn joked. “He’s all talk and no bite. If you could kick his can, then ho boy, I can’t WAIT to see what I can do against him!”

“I’m sorry, who are you again?” 

“Oh. Sorry. I’m Brooklyn. Jacob's friend.”

“Aha. That’s right. Sorry. Names don’t really stick at first. I’ll get it memorized though.”

“Good. You’d better. After all, there’s a possibility we could be teammates.”

“Really?”

“Sure! I mean, I don’t know how the forest will work, and I’ve heard they are trying to be a bit more random this year, so who knows what will happen!”

“Right.”  
  


 

The transport finally reached the edge of the Emerald forest, and all the students poured out. They then reached the cliffs that overlooked the forest, as well as the launch pads. As each of the students picked a platform, Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch stood in front of them.

“Now I’m sure you are all aware as to how this works. But a refresher could never hurt. You are to go into the Emerald Forest and reach an old temple to the north of here. There you will find ancient Relics that you will retrieve and bring back here. You will be graded during the duration of the trial, and during that time, you will form your teams. Let me be clear, the first person you make eye contact with in this forest will be your teammate for the next four years. However, this year we are making things a bit more interesting. Rather than launching you all at once, we have something different in mind.” As he said this, giant walls popped up in front of each of the students. “I know that some of you had plans of attempting to choose your own partners while in this forest. But to ensure true randomization, we will launch each person one at a time until they land, and none of you will see where or how they have landed. Good luck to you all.” As soon as he said that, the platforms began launching students into the forest one at a time. Miles was a bit nervous as now rather than being able to plan out how to meet up with Ty, he would have to go with chance, and that could end poorly. As his turn came up, the wall dropped, and he was launched sky high. He flew without changing course whatsoever. He then started falling into a grove of trees, and went straight into a dive feet first. As he started quickly approaching the ground, he then changed his gravitational pull to straight up about 5 feet from the ground, greatly slowing his momentum as if he was on a bungee cord. As he reached his slowest point, he reverted his gravity to normal and landed on the ground, brushed his shoulder off and started making his way to the north.  


 

Natalie noticed a slight flaw with Ozpin’s system. Even though she couldn’t look straight ahead, she could peek past the wall to see what was going on. But as her brother was about to be launched, Professor Goodwitch caught sight of her and made a snapping sound with her Riding Crop, to which Natalie quickly hid back behind the wall. She then turned invisible to peek around the corner and noticed her brother using his Billy Clubs to basically slide down between two trees, and disappeared into the foliage. Next up was Jacob. He was launched sky high, and then pulled out one of his knives and spun around the tree like he was going down a slide. Next, Christy went flying into the forest, and landed on the top of one the trees with her axes as handles. Then Evan went flying, and threw his spear ahead and used it as a springboard to land on the ground. Ty was launched next, and he nonchalantly just flew straight into the forest without seeming like he needed to slow himself down at all. The landing created a crater pretty wide from Natalie’s perspective. Finally, Brooklyn was launched, and she used her scimitar to spin around on a branch until she slowed down and landed easily. There were a few people that had to go before Natalie, and she started worrying that the others would have already found partners before she managed to land. But she put that all behind her as her turn came up and she was launched sky high. As she started descending towards the tree line, she pulled out her weapon, fired a few shots to slow herself down, then split the weapon into two, and used them as picks to claw into the tree. She then dropped down, reformed her weapon into one, and turned invisible. She knew if she stayed hidden, there was a greater chance that she would find somebody she would be willing to work with rather than just running the chance of being paired with somebody she didn’t want to be teammates with. As she started running, she noticed that there was hardly anybody around. She kicked herself for not adjusting her trajectory towards where she saw Nathan land more than she already had. She then came up on a clearing, where she saw a giant Ursa. The Grimm hadn’t noticed her, rather was looking in a completely different direction. She prepared her weapon, and rushed in to slice it in half. She was about 12 feet away when she ran into something. It was a pretty bad collision, as she tumbled right to the feet of the Grimm, and turned visible again. As she tried to regain her senses, the Ursa raised one of its massive claws and prepared to slice her right in half. But suddenly, the hand fell off as it had been sliced cleanly away from the body, and just as swiftly as that had happened, a sword stabbed through the Ursas head and into the ground. Natalie couldn’t see her rescuers face, as the disintegration of the Ursa got in the way. But when the darkness flew away, Natalie cursed herself for not turning invisible again. Right in front of her, looking her dead in the eyes, was Miles, who seemed just as surprised as she was. They blinked, looked at each other for another few seconds, and then simultaneously face-palmed.


	7. Episode 1: Chapter 3: Pairs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

Pyrrha was running as fast as she could. She was kicking herself for throwing out rock instead of scissors against Ruby to see who was going to get the drinks for the group. It had come down to Ruby’s speed to get all the drinks quickly and Pyrrha’s ability to basically carry all the drinks at once with her Semblance. As she made it back to Team RWBY’s room, she saw them all laughing.

“OH MY GOSH THAT’S SO PERFECT!” Yang laughed at the top of her lungs.

“This is indeed an interesting development.” Ren contemplated.

“I warned him it was going to be crazy.” Blake remarked.

“Ugh…Natls, why couldn’t you have stayed invisible or something?” Ruby said annoyed as she handed Jaune a plate of cookies, which he happily accepted.

“All right, I’ll bet you two of my plates that the next pairing is Brooklyn McPhearson with Vespere Rubrum.” Jaune said as he slid two plates of cookies into the middle of the group.

“You’re on!” Ruby said excitedly. “I’m going to say Brooklyn with that Dante guy!”

“You’re both wrong.” Weiss chimed in with a sense of sarcasm in her voice as she added her own plate to the mix. “I say it will be Jacob Strohl and Brooklyn McPhearson.”

“OOH! That’s a challenge ice queen!” Yang said excitedly. “I say Christy and Brooklyn!”

“I thought I had finally gotten past that nickname!”

“Maybe with most everybody else, but not me!” Yang said with a giant smile. Pyrrha smiled, and floated the drinks to everybody around the room. She then opened her drink, and sat down next to Jaune.

“So what did I miss? Clearly something good.”

“Yeah. You sure did.” Jaune said with a smile. “You remember that crazy guy who attacked Ruby’s friend Natalie on the airship to Beacon yesterday?”

“How could I forget? Ruby wouldn’t stop talking about it.” Ruby chuckled a little bit at this.

“Well, get this. The two of them are going to be teammates once they finish initiation!” Pyrrha started laughing out loud at this, greatly amused.

“Am I the only one who sees the irony in this?”

“Uh, no?” Yang said annoyed. “Why do you think we were laughing so hard Pyrrha?”

“Eh. It’s okay Pyrrha.” Jaune said. “We still have several more people to be paired up before they even get to the forest temple.”

“Hey, did you ever catch what Professor Ozpin was using as relics this year?” Pyrrha asked.

“I thought you got that information?” Jaune said looking up at Pyrrha.

“Nope. Ruby? Ren? Yang? Weiss?”

“Nope. Sorry Pyrrha.”

“Completely slipped my mind.”

“I was busy getting the screen ready for the show.”

“And I was busy making sure that the ballroom wasn’t a complete pigsty after those first years were done with it!”

“It doesn’t really matter.” Blake said. “Isn’t a bit more exciting to wonder how it’s going to turn out rather than already knowing all the answers?”

“UGH! BLAKE! WHY ARE YOU SO PREACHY AND BORING?!” Nora yelled from the other room. “I SWEAR, THAT NEW KID IS RUBBING OFF ON YOU IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!”

“Uh, have you even talked to Blake before?” Weiss questioned.

“Well DUH! But whenever I try to she just starts reading one of her books or something!”

“Will you quiet down please Nora?” Ren piped up. “We have this rare break in our busy schedules and rather than spend all of it arguing, I’d rather spend it actually enjoying this entertainment we have before us. It’s not common for the drones that fly throughout the forest during initiation would be available for our viewership.”

“Ren’s right.” Ruby spoke up. “Besides, there are still several pairs to be made, and I want to see if they run into that pack of Boarbatusks that had started roaming around the ruins a few days ago! So everybody shut up and lets watch!” They all silently nodded and returned to watching the initiation.  


 

“YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!” Miles yelled in frustration.

“THAT’S MY LINE!” Natalie yelled back.

“I mean seriously, what were you thinking? Rushing in to attack an Ursa that had clearly locked eyes with another opponent? Were you even paying attention?” 

“Says you! You had to charge forward instead of letting it come to you!”

“Well excuse me for trying to gain first move advantage! Besides, you were no better! You had to charge out in front of me like a maniac, and doing so while invisible I might add didn’t help the situation!”

“UGH! Just forget it! We need to start heading towards the forest temple before we argue the whole day away!”

“Fine. Whatever. Just don’t slow me down kid.”

“I don’t slow you down and you don’t try to blow me up again!”

“Fair enough.” Suddenly, there was some rustling in the trees behind them, and they quickly pulled their weapons out. But then out of the foliage stepped Nathan, brushing off his clothes of loose leaves and sticks turned and saw his sister.

“Hey! Natls! That was lucky! You don’t have a teammate yet I’m assuming? Me neither! What say we start heading to that temple right now?”

“Um…I’m standing right here?” Miles said kind of annoyed. Nathan looked over at Miles, then back at Natalie. Then back at Miles then Natalie again. He then proceeded to facepalm.

“Yeah. We had the same reaction.” Natalie groaned.  


 

As Ty was walking through the forest, he continued to hum himself a little tune. He didn’t feel the need to rush, as Miles was most likely to find him before vice versa. As he was walking along however, he heard sounds of a struggle. He at first decided to ignore it, but then it came to him, with Christy having been knocked out of the foliage and about ten yards in front of Ty. She got back up, her eyesight not wavering from her opponents. Then out of the foliage came a horde of Creeps that were barreling right towards her. She had one of her weapons in shotgun form and kept firing at the horde, while preparing to return to close quarters combat. But as the Creeps grew nearer, Ty intervened. He made a running motion straight ahead, and started slashing the Creeps closest to the front. As he finished his run, he quickly turned back around and morphed his weapon into bazooka form. He then aimed at the rest of the Creeps and blasted them into oblivion, but a few still got past, still charging straight towards Christy. She then morphed her shotgun into her second axe and did a few maneuvers that sliced the rest of them into pieces, which began to dissipate rather quickly.

“Thanks for the assist…” she quickly cut herself off as she realized that she was almost looking him right in the eye. She diverted her gaze away as did Ty.

“Did you just make eye contact?” He asked.

“I might have? I mean, I don’t know.” Then one of the drones hovered down to them and a hologram of Professor Ozpin showed up.

“According to our scanners, the two of you met eyes for all of 0.01 seconds. That qualifies as eye contact. I suggest you two get used to the idea of being teammates.” With that said, the hologram vanished and the drone returned to its higher position in the sky.

“Well then. I guess we’ll be working together with Miles and whoever he’s paired up with.” Ty said as he sheathed his sword.

“I’m not sure how I feel about that…”

“Oh come on. Who knows? He could have run into Evan.”

“Wait a minute, how do you know all our names again?”

“Um…I played in that Soaring Ninja 2 tournament last night, remember?”

“I didn’t play.”

“No but Evan did.”

“What? I could have sworn he was sleeping right next to me right on the borderline of the guys/girls setup last night…. unless he used…”  


 

Evan continued to do battle with the Griffon. He quickly dodged out of the way, and started making preparations. He created an illusion space around himself, and started moving to the left of the beast. As far as the Griffon was concerned, Evan was standing right in front of it just waiting for the beast to attack. It charged forward, and when it hit his doppelganger, the illusion fell away like wet paint off a wall, and it continued down in a line towards Evan’s current location. Once it caught up to him, it revealed Evan, but just as he was leaping up towards the Griffon. He punched the creature to the ground with his gauntlet, and then quickly finished the job with his spear going right through the creature’s head.

“As always Evan, beautifully orchestrated.” Evan turned around to see Jacob congratulating him with Brooklyn standing right next to him.

“I assume the two of you are already paired up?” Evan asked.

“No, we’re just hanging out looking for wild berries OF COURSE WE’RE PAIRED UP!” said Brooklyn with conviction. Evan took a step back, holding his hands up in defense. Jacob chuckled a bit at this and started walking past the dissipating Grimm.

“I take it that you haven’t found Christy yet?”

“Nope. I literally landed then started fighting this Griffon. I’m not even sure where she landed anyways.”

“Well we best start walking unless we want to run into somebody we don’t even know.” As he said this, a few trees fell over, and revealed a slightly annoyed Miles having sliced them right in half. “Case in point.” Jacob said as he motioned to Miles. As Miles made his way to the three, Natalie and Nathan were right behind him. Then Nathan looked right at Evan, and he at him.

“You got a partner yet Evan?” 

“Nope. You?”

“No. But being partnered with you is a better scenario right now than my sister’s.”

“Don’t tell me….”

“Yep.” Evan looked at the two rivals, and then started raising his hand up.

“I SWEAR TO HECK IF YOU FACEPALM I WILL THROW YOU ALL THE WAY TO THE FOREST TEMPLE IF I HAVE TO!” Miles yelled with annoyance.

“You have to admit though,” Jacob interjected, “It is an appropriate response to the scenario at hand.”

“Fine. I’ll give you that. But since this is such an awkward situation, what say we just put our heads together and get on with this endeavor?” They all agreed and started heading northwards towards the temple.  


 

Ty and Christy finally emerged into another clearing and were standing right by the edge of a cliff that lead down to what looked like the ruins of a large city within a valley.

“You think this is the right path?” Christy asked.

“I think this is it. Look." Ty pointed down to the giant collection of bridges in a giant gorge leading to another opening.  "The connecting bridges lead right to that other cliff on the other side of this valley, and it looks like there’s some kind of shrine off in the distance. I daresay that is where our objective lies.”

“Great. So how are we getting past this valley?”

“I was planning on just jumping down.”

“Onto the crumbling old building structures? You sure it can take that much power?”

“Meh. Live and let die. Here hop on my back.” Christy gave Ty a weird look and took a few steps back as he said this. “I know it’s weird, but this is super fast compared to just both of us jumping.”

“We were launched sky high and forced to land by our own abilities. I think I’ll be all right.”

“Fine. I’ll see you down there.” Ty said as he literally walked off the side of the cliff. Christy followed behind by sliding down the cliff face using her axes as picks. As they reached the bottom, Ty created a bit of a crater in the ruins, but managed to make sure they didn’t collapse completely. As he dusted himself off, Christy landed right behind him, and then fired a shot over to their left. There was a random Boarbatusk running towards the center of the ruins, and her shot managed to hit it right square in the creatures face, causing it to tumble off the edge and into the valley below.

“Pretty good aim.”

“Well when you’re typecast as a ranged type, it tends to happen pretty quickly.”

“Why ranged type? I mean you wield two freaking axes for crying out loud.”

“I guess it’s because everybody saw the fact that I’m not that good physically or technically at fighting anything, so they just gave me some weapons to defend myself with in close quarters just in case the need arose. And I’m glad they did because I would have been mince meat several times over without these things.”

“Well that’s great and all, but I daresay we should start moving towards the forest temple now as it seems that our old friend you blasted over the side seemed to have been a part of a pack.” Christy turned her attention to where Ty was looking, and there was a large pack of Boarbatusks running right towards them, the few in front had already began charging their spin attacks. Ty drew his sword and morphed it into a bazooka while Christy started blasting them several times over. Then Ty launched his first rocket sending those in front flying, but there were still several more Boarbatusks behind them, and he could see off in the distance was a King Taijitu. He morphed his bazooka back into a sword and slashed at the first arrivals of the pack, while slowly backing away.

“I would say a strategic retreat is in order at this time.” He said as he turned to run. Christy switched one of her weapons to axe mode as to knock back an oncoming Boarbatusk, and fire at the oncoming horde. As they made their way past the valley, they managed to lay their eyes on the forest temple, but didn’t stop to rest as the Grimm pack wasn’t that far behind.

“Any suggestions Ty?”

“Our only option at this point is to stand and fight.” He said as he pulled out his sword once again and prepared for a showdown. Then, suddenly, out of the trees came flying Evan, spear in hand, and to his right was Natalie. She used Blue Wavecrest to propel herself forward into the middle of the pack and started using her weapon like a quarterstaff and started slicing the enemies into pieces. Evan in the meantime, attacked the flank, causing several enemies to turn their attention away from the others and towards him. Then, continuing to pour out of the foliage was Nathan and Brooklyn. Nathan started charging right into the middle of the horde, bashing creatures in the face until they dissipated. Then he noticed one was right on the tail of Natalie and was about to impale her, but he then quickly took one of his clubs, and threw it at the creature, causing it to go flying into the path of Natalie’s spinning weapon, and then the club bounced around hitting opponents some more before returning to Nathan’s hand. Suddenly, a Death Stalker appeared as if out of nowhere, right behind the entire group that had made it this far. Ty turned around and prepared to face off against it, but then Brooklyn rushed towards the creature herself. She used her rifle form to take a few shots at the giant stinger on its tail, and then used her scimitar form to slice it off, causing the creature to start reeling. Ty saw his chance, and rushed towards the creature, jumping up off the left claw, then landing right on top of it, spiking his sword right through the creature’s head. As he turned back to the rest of the group, he noticed that the King Taijitu was almost right on top of them. Then finally, Miles and Jacob emerged from the forest, weapons to the ready. Miles made the first move, slicing at the Taijitu’s head jewel, forcing it to split into its white and black counterparts. Jacob followed in suit, gracefully and easily dodging the two giant snake creatures. As the two creatures made their way towards him, he pulled out two of his knives, and as they got closer, he managed to stab the knives in their eyes. He jumped away because a few seconds later, the two knives exploded and caused the heads of the twin snakes to be completely obliterated, leaving the bodies to fade from existence. As they all put their weapons away, they gathered together by the forest temple.

“So Ty, I guess you paired up with the healer then?” Miles asked.

“Yep. We made our way down here and then you guys showed up. And who’s your new teammate.”

“Our good friend that I dueled yesterday.”

“You sure you’re all right with this pairing?”

“Eh. I’ll live. We’ll see what happens. After all, we still could be on the same team together depending on the relics we obtain.”

“Speaking of which,” Evan interjected, “shall we collect them now?” They all agreed and made their way to the crumbling temple and the circle of pedestals. In the stands were multi colored hilts, with blades going into the stone. Miles grabbed one, as did Nathan, Jacob and Ty. Each blade seemed to be of little importance, but there was no two of any color. There were several variations such as dark blue, turquoise, and sky blue, but never two of the same. Miles’ hilt was black; Ty grabbed the white hilt, while Nathan grabbed one with a green hilt, leaving Jacob with an indigo hilt.

“Any idea on how these go together?” Christy asked.

“Maybe it’s opposites?” Evan put out. “I mean, it does seem to be the idea that we are going for some kind of artistic expression.”

“Look, we’ll find out once we report back to Ozpin.” Nathan quickly said. “Does anybody else feel that in the ground?” Everybody stopped and listened closely. He was right. It was as if something truly gigantic was marching towards them. As they left the temple area, they looked over to the forest, and emerging was a Goliath, charging forward at full tilt.

“Ugh.” Miles groaned as he drew his swords. “I’ll be right back.”

“Wait! I can help….” Natalie tried to say before Miles rushed off to face the beast. He started preparing his attack, and leapt into the air with the intention of stabbing the beast right in the face, but out of nowhere, giant feathers started pelting him from above. He fell to the ground, as a Nevermore swooped in for attack. Natalie didn’t waste any time as she started running to where Miles was lying, as he was pinned down by one of the feathers, as it had impaled his leg.

“Natls!” Nathan screamed in fear, and started running after her. Suddenly, his speed increased and was already running side by side with her, making their way towards Miles. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

“Helping my teammate. I don’t care if he tried to kill me, that doesn’t matter right now! He needs my help! So go distract that Goliath while I help get that feather out of his leg!” Nathan nodded and rushed towards the Goliath again. As he got closer, the Goliath attempted to smash him with its trunk, but Nathan took his clubs and formed an X shape with them, and blocked the attack. Natalie made it to Miles’ side and used her weapon to slice off the majority of the feather, then pulled the barb out of his leg. But as she did so, the Nevermore swooped back in for another pass, and Miles was in no condition to run. But then Evan swooped in and created an illusion space in the form of a bubble around the three of them. The nevermore couldn’t see them, so focused its attack towards Nathan. But Nathan noticed this in time and let the feathers pierce the Goliath instead, weakening it.

“We can’t just stand here doing nothing! Brooklyn yelled.

“How’s your throwing arm?” Jacob asked Ty.

“A lot better than yours. What do you have in mind?”

“Toss Christy up there so she can decapitate that bird.”

“You okay with that Christy?”

“Let’s get going.” She replied.

“Fine. Grab the hilt.” Christy then grabbed the hilt of Ty’s sword, and he prepared to sling her up towards the bird like a slingshot.

“Do the same with me once you toss her up.” Brooklyn added. Ty nodded and performed a might throw towards the Nevermore, and Christy landed perfectly on the creatures back. Then Brooklyn grabbed the hilt and Ty did the exact same thing. “I don’t think I’m going to make it!” She yelled, as she got closer. Jacob then pulled out one of his knives with a longer hilt and started running pace for pace with Brooklyn. What took the span of a few seconds, to Jacob, felt like half a minute. He observed the pattern of the Nevermore, then threw his knife up and placed it perfectly in the creature’s neck.

“Brooklyn! Handle in the neck!” She recognized this, and grabbed the hilt then spun around it to springboard up onto the back alongside Christy. They started slashing away at the neck, causing the bird to being to fall to its death. Meanwhile, Natalie was helping Miles with his wounds, when she noticed the Goliath was starting to gain some ground on Nathan. She realized that his fear was starting to get the best of him, so she grabbed her weapon and prepared to launch herself towards the creature.

“Evan, take care of him. I’m going for my brother.” Evan nodded, and dropped the illusion. Natalie then started firing her weapon to propel herself forward, and sliced at one of the Goliath’s legs. It began to wobble, and started to topple over. But Nathan happened to be right in the creatures fall point. He didn’t see it until it looked like it was going to crush him. Then, all of a sudden, it stopped falling down, and started falling up. It then rose as if it was floating on air itself.

“Ladies!” Miles yelled towards Christy and Brooklyn. “Finish that thing off please? I can’t hold this for much longer.” The two nodded, jumped off the doomed Nevermore, and sliced the Goliath right in half as they fell to the ground. As they landed, Christy made her way over to Miles and started treating his leg. The puncture wasn’t extremely severe, so they stopped when it could be walked on rather than the full recovery for the time being. Miles then walked over to Natalie, with a look of confusion in his eyes.

“The Goliath was right there, and you had a clear opportunity to take it down. Why didn’t you?” 

“I beg your pardon?” she replied. “Would you rather have had the Nevermore continue to cut you to shreds?”  
“That would have been inconsequential because I could get away from the creatures attacks. By ignoring the Goliath however, you could have jeopardized everybody as it takes an extreme amount of power to take down such a creature…” Natalie whacked Miles in the head with her fist to get him to stop talking.

“My teammate was injured, and I made the call that every Huntsman or Huntress makes in the field. The people before the monsters. Now come on. The mission’s done. Let’s head back home.” She said this with a smile, and walked back southwards to the starting point, Nathan right beside her with his arm over his shoulder.

“I’m proud of you sis!”

“Thanks bro.” Natalie said gathering herself.  Meanwhile, Miles slowly got up, and then Ty placed his hand on his shoulder.

“You okay man?” he asked.

“I have this sinking feeling that once we finish our four years here,” Miles said, “it’s going to turn out that Blake was right about me.”

“What, the fact that you still have honor left in you?”

“I guess so. Something about her just makes me think there can be good in this world, you know?” 

“Wait, Blake or Natalie?”

“I was mainly going for Natalie in this scenario, but Blake’s not a bad contender either.”

“Blake seems like a good judge of character. I think that’s why she wanted to prove you wrong so much with this. I’ve even seen it in you since day one when you were struggling to get by in Vacuo.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Right before our team-up, you had this look of determination that you were going to get the job done no matter what it took. And today, I saw that same fire from Natalie. I think you two will get along fine.” Ty then started walking towards the rest of the group and started chatting up other topics. Miles just kind of stood there before he had to catch up with the rest of the group so he wouldn’t be left behind.  


 

Everybody applauded as Team WATR was given their leader and teammates at the ceremony. As they left the stage, Professor Ozpin started speaking again.

“Please report to the stage: Brooklyn McPhearson, Ty Boyer, Jacob Strohl, and Christy Curtiss.” As he said this, the four of them took the stage. “The four of you retrieved the knives with the hidden characters for ‘hope and cleanse’ on the blade. From this day forward you will be known as, Team JCTB (Jetboil). Led by…. Jacob Strohl.” The crowd applauded, and Jacob took a bow before they exited the stage.

“Well, there goes my teammate.” Miles moped.

“Relax. It’ll be fine. It’s not like you’re never going to see him again.” Natalie told him.

“Yeah, being stuck with you is ten times worse than being stuck with him.”

“You know, I could have let the Nevermore slice you up into tiny pieces.”

“As if that could stop me.” Miles joked as he elbowed Natalie in the shoulder.

“Next onto the stage please,” Ozpin continued, “Evan Hahn, Miles Watson, Nathan Grover, and Natalie Grover. The four of you retrieved the knives with the hidden characters for ‘light and shadow’. The four of you will be known as Team NEMN (Ni-mon). Led by…. Natalie Grover.” Miles tried his hardest to keep his jaw from hitting the floor. Meanwhile, Nathan was giving Natalie a huge bear hug and Evan was applauding her. They exited the stage as the rest of the teams were formed for that day. Then everybody made their way to their dorm rooms and started unpacking. As soon as everything was done, Team NEMN sat down on the floor and realized there wasn’t that much room for the beds.

“Well now what do we do?” Nathan moped.

“We could ditch my bed and I’ll sleep on the floor or something.” Miles piped up.

“Or, you could do what we did last year and make BUNK BEDS!” The four of them turned to see Ruby and Yang standing in the doorway. As the sisters made their way inside, the others stood up.

“Is that even possible?” Natalie asked.

“Hey, it’s just like Ruby said. We did it last year, and we still have it like that to this day!” Yang said excitedly. Everybody then started helping with the setup of the new bunk beds, and the end result looked a lot nicer that what Team RWBY had in their room. The group then turned their attention to Team JCTB’s room and did the exact same thing when it was apparent that there was not much room there either. After that was done, they all congregated back in NEMN’s room, and started chatting it up, and while doing so, Weiss and Blake entered the room.

“You guys showed some amazing potential out there today!” Weiss said.

“You definitely have what it takes to be here at Beacon! That’s for sure!” Yang said with a confident voice.

“OH YEAH! There’s somebody else I want you guys to meet!” Ruby then quickly ran out of the room.

“I swear, if she’s brining IT in here…” Blake said in a kind of growling voice.

“Wait, what’s it?” Miles asked. Then, Ruby returned, with Zwei in her arms, leading to several reactions. According to Blake, everybody had rushed over to gawk over the dog that everybody seemed to adore, and she had jumped up to the top bunk of the nearest bed as per the norm. But then she felt like she landed on something once she got up there.

“Um…Blake?” She turned to see Miles with a look of pain on his face. “Your heel is kind of digging into my knee.” She then quickly pulled her leg back in surprise and confusion.

“I’m so sorry Miles! I didn’t expect you up here at all! I mean, I thought pretty much everybody just wanted to flaunt all over that dog!”

“Are you kidding me? I can’t stand dogs.” As soon as he said that, everybody started looking at him like he was crazy except Ty.

“It’s true.” Ty spoke up. “Back when we first started fighting Grimm as a team, he asked me if there was a type that looked like dogs, and when I said no, he looked like somebody had taken away his target practice or something.” Everybody started laughing at this, leaving Miles embarrassed once again.

“Well, at least I’m not the only one.” Blake said with a smile as she looked at Miles.

“Should I just bring a deck of cards or something next time Ruby decides to bring that dog in here?” Miles asked.

“Sure. Why not. Better than just hoping that dog goes away sooner rather than later for like 30 minutes.” The two of them started laughing together, then noticed Yang was standing right next to the bed looking at them with a kind of evil smile, as was Natalie.

“NOW KISS!” Yang said as she tried to bring their heads together, much to the protest of the two victims of Yang’s antics. Everybody started laughing all over the place. Jacob was about to join them when Team JNPR walked in and Pyrrha caught sight of Jacob.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it Jacob? How have you been?” She asked him. But then Jacob’s mood quickly plummeted, and he started to walk out.

“Hey, where are you going?” Brooklyn asked, and everybody’s attention turned to Jacob.

“I’m going to be in my room for a while.” Jacob said as he slammed the door behind him.

“What was that about?” Ruby said confused. Pyrrha sighed and Jaune put his hand on her shoulder.

“You can’t expect him to be all smiles and rainbows given what happened a few months ago.”

“I know Jaune. It’s just sad to see that despite what he’s accomplished on his own, he still hates me.”

“I wouldn’t say he hates you so much as uses you as a scapegoat for his recent struggles.” Everybody was suddenly surrounding the couple with confused looks on their faces. Pyrrha then held Jaune’s hand, and smiled. She turned towards the group and said,

“I’m sorry for not telling you all this sooner. I felt it would be best to tell you once we found out what team Jacob was going to be on. You see, he’s actually my cousin.” Everybody was shocked by this, not sure what to say.

“The conveniences continue to show their face around here, don’t they?” Blake said.

“Great.” Miles said annoyed. “This is just getting better by the second.”


	8. Episode 1: Chapter 4: Learning in Fighting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

“Jacob is your COUSIN?!” Nathan said with surprise. “He never mentioned that when we were growing up in Aequo.”

“It’s not something easy to talk about.” Brooklyn said. “Nor is it something he likes to hold high above his head. Especially given what happened to Pyrrha back during the Vytal festival.”

“How do you mean Brooklyn?”

“Well, from what Jacob told me, he’s always wanted to prove himself as his own person, not just somebody that was in the shadow of his more successful cousin. And when Pyrrha faced off against the android from Atlas, once the whole incident was over, everybody at Sanctum looked at him like he was apart of a lineage of murderers or something.” Pyrrha lowered her head, clearly upset by this.

“It wasn’t always this way. I didn’t realize that it was that bad for him.”

“Why don’t you start from the beginning Pyrrha?” Ruby spoke up. “That might make things a bit easier to understand.”

“All right then. Back before that event seven years ago, Jacob was living his life normally in Aequo, and I was living happily in Mistral, receiving all the praise and honor I had been receiving all my life. The first time I met Jacob, it was about 10 years ago, and I was just starting my initial training as a Huntress.”

“Wait, you started training at age 8?” Evan asked. “Isn’t that a little young to start training to be a fighter?”

“Eh.” Yang shrugged. “Uncle Qrow took me and Ruby on a field trip to watch him kill Grimm when I was like five. Please continue Pyrrha.”

“Right. Well when we first met, it was just two kids meeting for the first time. We had fun, we played games together, we were just being kids. But all good things had to come to an end. Three years later, that event happened. At the time, Jacob was attending a combat school in Mistral, but he heard about what happened, and struggled for several weeks. I was there to help him as best I could and we pulled through the tragedy together.”

“So why does he hate you?” Nathan interrupted again.

“I’m getting to that. Once he started at Sanctum, I had already finished my first year there. And everybody had already started praising me as a talented fighter, a goddess in human form, and just about every compliment under the sun. But when word got out that Jacob was my cousin, people started expecting more of him. I had achieved a position so high up that everybody expected him to match that level of greatness. But that wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to reach his own goals. His own way, and with his own strength. We would constantly fight about this. He always saw me as somebody who people just simply compared him to. He never thought anybody else saw him as anything else but the next me, for the lack of a better term. When I left for Beacon, he promised me that he would go to Beacon as well, and finally surpass me. But I haven’t heard much from him since that day. All I know is that he won the Mistral Regional Tournament his final year, and made it into Beacon with high honors.”

“I can fill in the gap from right before then.” Brooklyn jumped in. “Like I said, what happened during the Vytal Festival last year was a tragedy. But when it was all over, the world was ready to point fingers, and Pyrrha was their first easy target. That short time of everybody dumping on Pyrrha, led to everybody back at Sanctum believing that Jacob was that same kind of person as Pyrrha, a ruthless killer. He had to pull himself out of those assumptions with his own powers and abilities. He started by winning the qualifiers to the Regional Tournament with great ease, and then following through by winning every single match in the final tournament, leaving people to just simply accept him for who he is.”

“Well, isn’t that a good thing?” Miles asked. “He proved himself while being doubted. He showed that he doesn’t need the spotlight that Pyrrha shared with him. So what’s the problem?”

“He still wants to surpass her.” As soon as Brooklyn said this, all eyes turned to her. “He believes that the only way to fully get what happened to him these past few years behind him, he has to surpass Pyrrha in order to reach that place that he wants to be.” The room fell silent for a few minutes, and then Ty stood up.

“I can understand where he’s coming from." Ty said standing up.  "My father was the famous Huntsman with the nickname Demon Slayer Vergil. And it wasn’t the world that placed expectations on my shoulders, it was him. I trained day in and day out to reach the pinnacle of meeting my father’s expectations. But then I realized something. He didn’t care about how high I climbed, because he didn’t want me to become just like him. He wanted me to be me. So, I decided to travel the world a bit and see what I could do to help others in my own way. That’s how I came across Miles in the first place. And here we are now. Everything came together nicely.”

“That’s great and all Ty, but there’s still one problem.” Miles said. “What happened to you took place over your lifetime to this point, while Jacob’s situation is a bit more recent. Also, now that he’s your team leader, don’t you think that holding a personal vendetta against somebody who is on their side might prove distracting?”

“Jacob’s not like that.” Brooklyn said as she stood up. “For as long as I’ve known him, he’s had this goal of surpassing Pyrrha, but he’s also had the goal of becoming the greatest Huntsman he can possibly become. As far as I’m concerned, just give him a little bit of time. Maybe I’ll convince him to talk to Pyrrha later on. But for now, we just have to deal with what we’ve got right here and now.” Weiss then stood up, with Zwei in her arms.

“I would love to keep talking about this until the sun comes up, but it is getting late, and we all start classes again tomorrow.” Everybody in the room groaned as soon as Weiss brought up classes. “I’m going back to our room. I’ll see you guys tomorrow!” she walked out of the room, and team RWBY followed in suit.

“OH COME ON!” Nora yelled in annoyance. “We just got here! Do we really have to go to bed now?”

“Calm down Nora.” Ren said wrapping his arm around her shoulder. “Tomorrow we have combat class in the morning, and given what we saw today from these first years, we’re going to need our full strength. Shall we call it a night?”

“Oh fine.” Nora said as she pretty much dragged herself out of the room, and the rest of Teams RWBY and JNPR followed in suit. Then the other three members of Team JCTB took off for their own room, leaving Team NEMN to get ready for bed.

“So, does anybody have our schedule for tomorrow at all?” Evan asked breaking the silence.

“I think that first thing in the morning is history with Professor Oobleck, then right after that is combat class with Professor Goodwitch. After that comes lunch.” Miles said with confidence.

“All right then.” Natalie said, having emerged from the bathroom having changed into pajamas. “Let’s get some sleep team!” As she said this, she jumped into her bed, Nathan followed in suit, and Miles quickly jumped in the bathroom to change and get ready, leaving Evan as the last person to get ready.

“Why am I always the last person to get anything done here?”  


 

As the bell rang for the end of Professor Oobleck’s class, Team NEMN started making their way to the lockers to change into their fighting outfits for combat class. As soon as they had changed, they made their way into the stands, found Teams JCTB, RWBY and JNPR, all already sitting down.

“You guys get lost or something?” Ruby joked as the team sat down.

“Sorry for not being able to go faster than a speeding bullet and explode into rose petals.” Natalie replied sitting down next to her. As they got comfortable, Professor Goodwitch made her way to the center of the arena, her scroll in hand.

“Today you first years will all be having the ability to face off against select second years in the class. However, as time goes on, you will see equal time going toe to toe with classmates of your own class and even third and fourth years. And as the Memorial Vytal Festival will be at the end of the year, as we get into the second semester, the qualification process will begin. Note that the number of teams that can qualify for the tournament from each Kingdom is eight, and if you fall short, then you can try again next year at the true Vytal Festival being held in Vacuo. But for now, let us begin the selection process. Each first year will be selected at random, and then second year volunteers will do battle with them. Now then, let’s spin the wheel.” As soon as she said this, she waved her riding crop and in flew the spinner to determine the first of the new students to fight. As it landed, each fighter’s face was loaded onto an electronic screen. To ensure fairness, all the screens would be black during the spin and would only reveal the fighter at the very end. Next to each screen was a number to make sure the screen matched the predetermined number of each fighter to remove any fixed matches. With a flick of her wrist, Professor Goodwitch spun the wheel, and let it come to a complete stop. And when it did, the face it revealed was Miles’.

“All right then. The first combatant will be Mr. Watson. Now then, who is willing to face him in battle?” Instantly, the hands of Yang, Weiss, and Ruby went up.

“Um, Ms. Rose, I do believe I saw your hand go up first. Are you prepared?”

“I daresay I am! Just let me grab something real quick.” Ruby said as she grabbed a backpack with the Beacon logo on it. As she turned to head down to the arena via the locker rooms, Miles just simply jumped over the edge and smack dab into the middle of the arena. As he made his way to his corner, Ruby appeared, with an evil smile on her face.

“So, you fancy yourself pretty strong, eh?” Ruby said in a sly cunning voice.

“Um…yes. Yes I do.” Miles said, confused to Ruby’s approach to the matter.

“Well then, how strong are you when confronted by something that STRIKES FEAR INTO YOUR HEART?! I CALL UPON THE POWER OF ZWEI!” As she said this, she opened the bag and out jumped Zwei, leading to several different reactions throughout the audience. “Now, you will quake in fear as…” Ruby started to say but then noticed Miles had an even more confused look than before on his face.

“Ruby, I don’t like dogs. I don’t fear them to the point where I would be running away at the mere sight of one.”

“Then what was yesterday then?”

“Surprise and shock. But now,” Miles said as his face turned into a sadistic smile, “By having that dog here, you have given me permission to whale the tar out of it with no holds bared! This is a dream come true for me!” Ruby and Zwei both took a step backwards as soon as he said this, prompting Ruby to put Zwei back in the bag, run over to the side closest to the rest of her friends, and throwing him up to Yang before returning to her corner, preparing Crescent Rose for battle.

“Ah well.” Miles sighed. “Maybe another time.” With that said, he got into his battle stance, and was ready to go.

“Begin!” As soon as Professor Goodwitch yelled this, the two of them rushed forward and met blades right in the center. They then sparred for several minutes. Miles attempted to gain the upper hand by running along the walls, trying to draw Ruby closer to flip over her and land a powerful attack. But she instead used her sniper rifle mode to keep him at a distance for the time being. Ruby also tried to create a wind gust to blow him off his feet with her speed semblance, but that didn’t work as Miles just simply stood there as the wind rolled by. Nathan watched this battle with great intensity, seeming to be focused on Ruby’s movements.

“Something wrong bro?”

“I don’t get it Natls. I can’t seem to get a read on Ruby’s rhythm.”

“Really? Maybe it’s because you’re not fighting her.”

“No, even when I’m just sitting in the stands I can keep up with movements and see who’s got the advantage. But here, I can read Miles just fine but Ruby is a bit out there.”

“She’s never had one real style of fighting for as long as I’ve known her.” Weiss chimed in. “She just goes with the flow, sees opportunities, and leaps at them.”

“Yeah, even when we’re in the middle of a fight, she’ll just come up with a plan on the spot.” Yang said, continuing to watch the fight. “I guess that’s part of why she’s the team leader.”

“We’ll see what happens.” Jacob said. “Far as I can tell, it seems that neither side has been able to dictate supremacy yet, and unless Miles implodes on himself again, this could go either way.” The match continued, with each side having about equal share of control of the flow of combat. But then, Ruby started charging forward, launching herself with gunshots to propel herself even faster. Miles took a quick look at his aura levels, and smiled. He then quickly put his swords to the side, and moved his hands in a sliding motion as if he was directing traffic. All of a sudden, Ruby started turning to her right, and she felt like she was losing all control. She then lost her grip on her weapon and careened into the wall, dropping her aura level to about 30%. Then Miles quickly jumped right behind her, slashed her twice in the back, and the buzzer sounded recognizing that the match was over.

“Well done Mr. Watson. It may seem that you and your team may be able to qualify for the tournament if you keep up this type of performance.”

“Thank you. I will attempt to do so with great vigor.” Miles said as he walked up the walls of the arena back to where everybody was sitting. As he sat down, he realized that Yang was sitting right where he was with Zwei in her arms. He quickly moved away from her as best he could while staying with the rest of his teammates.

“Man! And here I thought this was going to be a close fight!” Ruby complained as she returned to her seat.”

“It was close.” Weiss said. “He just managed to get the better of you this time around. Don’t worry about it too much.” Ruby just simply sat down and folded her arms and fumed for a few solid minutes. The next several matches were interesting, but rather one sided in favor of the second years. Then Christy’s name was called, and Weiss volunteered to fight against her. The match was definitely an interesting one. Christy tried to rush towards Weiss, but ended up getting caught in one of her glyphs, letting Weiss use her rush teleportation technique to knock her aura levels down super quickly. As soon as that was over, Brooklyn was called up. Immediately, Yang jumped down, pounded her gauntlets together and created an aura burn. As soon as the match began, the two of them went straight for each other. Yang tried to mess up Brooklyn’s approach by shooting a few rounds at her, but Brooklyn simply stayed the course, using her shield form to defend against the onslaught of blasts. As soon as she got close enough, she used her shield to basically cause one of Yang’s punches to send her flying backwards towards the wall. Continuing her assault, Brooklyn morphed her weapon into scimitar form and continued to put pressure on Yang, forcing her back more and more. Then, Yang did a spinning move around Brooklyn, looking to punch her in the back and into the wall, but Brooklyn noticed this in a quick instant, and stabbed her scimitar into the ground. She took the hit, but the sword kept her from flying into the wall and taking even more damage. Turning around, she continued to fight Yang to a standstill. But even Brooklyn noticed that with every strike she managed to land on her opponent, it was putting her at a greater disadvantage. She could see and feel it. Yang was just simply getting stronger.

“I REFUSE TO LOSE TO SOMEBODY LIKE YOU!” Brooklyn screamed at the top of her lungs as she charged forward with another attack on Yang, her power growing immensely. The two of them continued to go at it, but it was apparent that despite her recent power up, Yang still had the edge over Brooklyn. With a quick motion, Yang managed to grab Brooklyn’s scimitar, and then throw her skywards to keep her off balance. Brooklyn tried to re-center herself by morphing her weapon into rifle form and firing a few rounds, but to no avail as she simply plummeted down to the awaiting fist of Yang. It was all too easy for Yang to just simply unload a few punches into Brooklyn’s side, causing her aura to plummet down to 8%. With that, the buzzer sounded and the match was ended. Brooklyn pounded the ground in frustration as Yang offered her a hand up. As they made their way back to the stands, the wheel was spun once again, and this time, it was Jacob’s name that came up.

“Now then, who would like to challenge Mr. Strohl to a match?” Goodwitch asked. Nobody raised their hands, and most of them were whispering in fear and lack of confidence. Pyrrha was especially worried because she had noticed that Jacob was looking directly at her. She knew that he wanted to face off against her, and if nobody was going to volunteer, then Goodwitch was going to pick somebody at random.

“Nobody wishes to face Mr. Strohl? In that case his opponent will be….”

“I’ll do it.” Everybody turned to see Jaune standing with his hand raised, and making his way down to the arena.

“Are you sure Mr. Arc?”

“Yes.” Jaune jumped down, drew his sword and prepared his shield. Jacob rolled his eyes as he drew his katana and walked over to the starting position.

“Do you think you’re protecting her by using yourself as a shield?” Jacob said with great annoyance to Jaune. “You hardly even know what has transpired in years past. Why do you do this when you know that all you are doing is delaying the inevitable?”

“Because despite what happened then, this is now. I do everything in my power to help every single member on my team. That’s a no brainer. But Pyrrha, she’s like that with everybody. She’s really ignored the fact that she’s been on this pedestal ever since she came to this school. She’s become a huntress. Just like all of us.” Jacob started laughing a bit at this.

“You really believe that she has humbled herself after all this time?! She is a person who stands as a goddess among fighters and relishes in that limelight! And since I share her blood, people expected me to stand beside her, but never pass her. I refuse such a fate. I will take her down, and establish myself the superior. But I guess I have to take down her self-imposed guardian first.” Jacob got in his ready stance, and waited for the bell. As soon as the match began, he rushed towards Jaune, and started clashing blades with him. Jacob was surprised at the fact that Jaune was able to keep up with him, but he calmed himself realizing that he was still moving forward in real time with his opponent. He decided to put on a little show for Pyrrha. He quickly entered his time manipulation state, and rushed towards Jaune. It was all too easy to see his simple movements. Jacob instantly started bashing Jaune left and right, as Jaune couldn’t keep up with his movements. Everybody watched from the stands completely stricken in awe. Nathan on the other hand, was completely intrigued.

“Can you actually keep up with him bro?” Natalie asked him.

“I can see his rhythm just fine, but his movements are so quick I doubt even I could keep up with him while empowered by fear. Heck, Ruby might even struggle to keep up with him he’s that fast. Jaune is completely outclassed.” While Nathan was saying this, Jacob had run out of time with his Semblance, but it didn’t matter. Jaune was now down to 20%, while Jacob hardly even had a scratch on his aura.

“Just give up. I’ve proven that you can’t even compare to me, and you should just let Pyrrha fight her own battles.”

“As long as I’m the leader of Team JNPR, I will put others needs before my own. And right now, the woman I love is being threatened by somebody from her past, and I’m going to protect her until you get your head on straight.”

“Admirable, but foolish.” Jacob said as he spun around to behind Jaune, and attempted to slash him down to the last of Jaune’s aura, but in a sudden instance, as soon as the sword connected, Jaune started to glow brightly, and suddenly, the entire stadium was canvassed in light. And then from Jaune himself, a force blasted out of his body, and directly hit Jacob. He tumbled over, and immediately felt his aura plummeting. When he got back up, he noticed that his aura had fallen to about 25%, while Jaune’s had risen back up to about 65%. Jaune then quickly landed a few hits on Jacob while he was down and still trying to regain his senses, and finished the fight. Jacob was slow to get up. He was shocked at the result; he was in complete control of the match! How did Jaune turn it around so easily?!

“Honestly, I don’t even know how I do that myself.” Jaune said offering a hand up to Jacob. “But I do know this. You and I both have teams now. And whatever you have going on with you and Pyrrha right now, you had better make sure it doesn’t hurt your team. That happened to me once, and believe me, I’m lucky to have this second chance here and now.” Jacob knocked Jaune’s hand away in frustration.” “What do you know about not being able to live up to people’s standards?”

“A lot more than you realize.” Jaune once again put his hand out for Jacob, this time he reluctantly accepted. As they made their way back to the stands, Pyrrha met them on their way up. Jacob walked right past her, heading back to his seat. Jaune in the meantime smiled, and hugged Pyrrha.

“Thank you Jaune.”

“Of course. Anytime. Don’t worry about him too much. I think once he’s ready, you to can talk it all out.”

“I hope so too.”  


 

The wheel was spun once again, as there were three more matches to be done before class ended. When the wheel stopped, it revealed that Nathan was next in line. He jumped down and pulled out his billy clubs. A few people in the audience chuckled as he did so.

“Why does that kid have white and purple clubs?”

“Seriously, did he even see them once he got them out of the initial design phase?” Natalie started getting a bit upset at this, and was about to jump up to his brother’s defense, but then noticed that Miles was already standing up, with an annoyed look on his face.

“It doesn’t matter the color of his weapons. What matters is the resolve in his heart to do what is right. Watch this man fight, and then decide if he is worth your mockery, or if he is somebody you want to never mess with during your time here at this school.” He sat himself back down, having said his piece. He noticed Natalie was looking at him like he was an alien.

“Your motivations are so confusing to me.”

“Better get used to it kid.”

“Hey, for the record, it’s TEAM LEADER.”

“We’ll see.”

“All right then, if we are done talking,” Professor Goodwitch spoke up, “then who is willing to face off against Mr. Grover here?” No one from the second years raised their hands.

“No one? Then I’ll just call someone out at random who has yet to fight today. Ms. Belladonna. Care for a sparring match?”

“All right.” Blake said as she jumped down to the arena and got in the staging area. The two of them entered a fighting stance, and the match began. Nathan started off with the first move, charging forward and attempting to knock Blake backwards. As far as he could tell, his first strike was a direct hit, but then he noticed what he was hitting was an image of Blake. She was actually right above him, preparing to hit him right in the side. But he was able to block it with relative ease, but something was off. Something about the way Blake held her sword. The way she used it. Sure she also used her sheath, but there was something about the grip, the ferocity, the style. Something seemed familiar, and that caused something inside of him to awaken.

  
Natalie was watching from the stands, and was keeping as close an eye as she could on the action. Both were very agility-style warriors, so she knew it would be a close match. But then something happened. Nathan threw one of his billy clubs to the side, and used the other to parry Blake’s swords. She recognized this technique right away. He was planning on keeping Blake in one place until the club hit her, and then he would land a powerful blow while she was confused. But then something happened. The club missed its target. Natalie stood up and got closer to the edge of the railing above the arena.

“Something’s wrong.”

“What do you mean by that?” Evan asked, as he walked up right next to her.

“Nathan has always been great at anticipating beats and rhythms, as well as angles and motion. That’s how he uses his clubs and knows exactly where to throw them so they end up back in his hand no matter what happens. But just now, I’ve only seen this happen once before.”

“And when was that?” Miles asked as he joined her on the railing.

“It was when we found Adam Taurus for all of five minutes.”

“What? You found Adam?” Yang said with surprise.

“Like I said, for a few minutes. After what happened, he escaped in an airship, leaving me and my brother behind.”

“Why did he spare you guys? In my understanding of Adam, he finished his enemies off right then and there if he can.”

“Nathan achieved a power that he can’t control while fighting Adam.”

“What kind of power?” Miles asked.

“It’s happening right now! We have to get down there!” Natalie jumped over the side and unsheathed her weapon, running towards her brother. But as she got close to him, he let out a yell that created a gigantic aura burn. But unlike most aura burns, this one was colored like a rainbow. Red, blue, green, yellow, orange, indigo, and pink. He then looked towards Blake with glowing white eyes. Blake was too confused to even react, and Nathan hit her hard with one of his billy clubs, sending her into the wall. He rushed towards her for another attack, but then Miles landed right by Blake, grabbed her, and started running up the wall, while Ty jumped right in the path of Nathan, drew his sword, and blocked his club. While the sheer force of the aura burn would blow most people away, Ty stood firm, easily taking the damage. As the burn started to die down, Natalie rushed over to him, and whacked his head with the blunt end of her weapon. Nathan started staggering at this point, and regained his senses.

“What…. what happened?” Looking around, he noticed all the burn marks, the damage to the arena, and Miles helping a startled and noticeably hurt Blake lie down in the stands above him. He dropped his clubs, and ran off out of the classroom.

“Nathan! Wait!” Natalie yelled. But it was to no avail. Nathan was already gone. She put her thoughts aside and walked over to where Miles was helping Blake sit down in the stands. Medical personnel were almost there, but Christy was already healing Blake as best she could. After a few short minutes, Blake got right back up, and looked around.

“Where’s Nathan?”

“Not sure.” Miles said. “He just dropped his weapons and ran off. Probably realized what he did and couldn’t bear the thought of it.”

“I know the feeling.” Blake said, slowly getting up. She then grabbed the two billy clubs, and started heading out.

“Blake, where are you going?” Ruby asked.

“I’m going to find Nathan. I think I need to figure out what’s going on for myself before anybody else talks to him.”

“All right. Be careful, no telling what caused it and if it can be triggered again.” Miles said as Blake left the arena.

“Criminy, I know your brother had a strong semblance, but I didn’t think it could reach power levels like THAT.” Jacob said.

“Like I said, this is only the second time that this has happened. I’m going to go see if I can find him also.” Natalie quickly grabbed her stuff and headed out of the classroom.

“Well then…I guess we should get some lunch or something?” Miles said towards the rest of the group.

“Makes sense to me.” Evan said.

“I think once Blake and Nathan talk it out, they’ll want to join us for some food.” Ren added.

“OOOH! Maybe there will be pancakes on the menu!” Nora said excitedly.

“Nora, we keep telling you,” Weiss sighed, “pancakes are breakfast foods. Just because you and Ren make them sometimes in your dorm room late at night doesn’t mean that they are going to be common food items during lunch in the cafeteria.”

“Oh, you’re such a party pooper Ice Queen!”

“Seriously! Why does everybody keep calling me that after a whole year!” Everybody started laughing, but Miles still felt a bit of concern, as he had this nagging feeling in the back of his head that he had seen that style of aura burn before. But he shrugged it off and joined the rest of the group on their way to the cafeteria.


	9. Episode 1: Chapter 5: Fading Embers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 5 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

Natalie was being knocked around like crazy. Professor Port’s class had just let out, and everybody was leaving there as fast as they could to head to the cafeteria. She couldn’t find her brother, and it was getting to the point where she was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable walking around.

“Hey, do you need any help?” a random student asked her as she continued to stumble forward.

“No thanks, I’m good.” She said as she pulled her hood up and quickly turned invisible. This made getting around everybody a bit more difficult, but it felt better then everybody staring at her. As soon as she got past the crowd, she turned visible, but still couldn’t find Blake or her brother. She decided to search the plaza and started heading that direction.  


 

Blake was walking out towards the airship docks overlooking the river that ran past the school and down through the city of Vale. She saw Nathan sitting out on the edge fiddling with a sliver necklace. He was so invested in it he didn’t even look up from it as Blake sat down next to him. She handed him his two billy clubs, which he accepted, still not averting his gaze from the necklace. Blake could now get a better look at what he was fiddling with. It was a cymbal. A single, lone cymbal the same color purple as his outfit and club.

“I’m so sorry about that Blake. I don’t know what came over me.”

“It’s all right. Your sister realized something was wrong and everybody jumped in quickly to make sure there wasn’t anymore damage done.”

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Sure. Go right ahead.”

“How well do you know of Adam Taurus?” Blake looked down and clenched her fist a bit at this. She then adjusted her bow to reveal her cat ears.

“I was once a member of the White Fang, and Adam was the one who trained me. But when he started losing himself to the darkness, I ran. I couldn’t stand by while those who claimed they stood for peace hurt innocent people.”

“You even sound just like her….”

“What?”

“My old mentor. You look just like her, your ideals match hers, you even have freaking cat ears.”

“Who is this mentor of yours? Someone close to you I’m guessing.”

“She was. Her name was Ember, a drummer who traveled and performed with the Violet Troupe.”

“I think I’ve heard of them before. Weren’t they a traveling circus that used the Faunus as attractions? I always felt like they were being exploited just because they were different.”

“Ember never saw it that way. She always saw the Violet Troupe as a bridge between the two worlds. A way of introducing the public to what the Faunus could do as it were.”

“Not many Faunus I know share that sentiment. They were more like nomads who wander Remnant with no place to really call a home, weren’t they?”

“They weren’t always like that. I’m sure you know the history of Aequo?”

“Not really. It was such a young town in comparison to others when it was destroyed seven years ago.”

“It may have been young in age, but those in charge were wise beyond the years of Remnant. They had sworn allegiance to Vale, but they didn’t keep all her laws. Also, they made sure that Faunus and Humans were on level terms and treated fairly. It was a huge beacon of hope. Even some of the rulers of the other kingdoms looked at us as a shining example. And the Violet Troupe was no different. They started in Aequo, and always trained there before going on tour. And every time before they left, they would give the whole town a show to showcase what they had in store for the rest of Remnant. And it was ten years ago now, when I first saw her. They had hired a new drummer, a cat faunus with silver ears, to help create audio cues for the performers on the high wires. The performers were impressive, but I was completely enthralled by the drummer. She was keeping an eye on the performers, their motion, their rhythm, and was able to use the drums to exactly pinpoint not just when to hit the drum when they grabbed onto one of the bars, but also at times so that the sound would reach them at the time they needed it to. It blew me away. So after the performance was done, I managed to slip away from my family and get backstage. I found her tent, and saw her practicing her drumming. She had just gotten done with a performance, and still she tried to make herself better at what she did. She bumped into me when she exited her tent, and I asked her if I could ever do what she did for a living. She smiled, and promised me that once the troupe returned from tour, she would personally train me how to play the drums. They didn’t return for about a year, but when they did, Ember found me and immediately we started practicing. I learned how to not just bang sticks on an instrument, but she would sometimes take me into the mountains that surrounded Aequo and teach me how to observe the rhythm of living things.”

“It sounds like the two of you were extremely close.”

“I always saw her as my best friend, but also in a way a second mother. My birth mother was amazing, but since she was a Huntress, she wasn’t home a lot. Ember was the one who helped me create my view of the world. And since Aequo was a fair and just town, I didn’t expect to see the unfair treatment of Faunus once I left for combat school at Signal.”

“How long ago was that?”

“It was about eight years ago now. My parents suggested I give combat school a try, and if I wasn’t interested or cut out for it, they gave me permission to join the Violet Troupe with Ember. After my first semester, I was still trying to find what weapons I should wield, and I was not doing that well with classes. I was planning on dropping out, but Ember took another step and offered to teach me how to incorporate my drumming with fighting similar to hers. She even gave me these clubs as my weapons. So I tried another semester, and I was doing a lot better. I was finally happy with what I was doing as a Huntsman in training. When the semester ended, I was coming home, and I was super excited to show Ember what I had learned. But that was soon cut short. I had just landed in the airship docks closest to Aequo, because they hadn’t finished construction of a legal airship dock yet. While most people took the bus back to Aequo, I decided to walk back the five miles and enjoy the beautiful day. But as the sun began to set, I was about a mile out of the town, and I saw smoke rising from between the two mountains. I started running as fast as I could back home, fearful for everybody there. Once I got to the city outskirts, the whole town was already on fire. People were getting rounded up and forced into a makeshift prison, while those who resisted were killed without hesitation. I saw my family save my sister rounded up and captured, along with everyone else. And that was when I saw him. Adam Taurus, commanding several White Fang members and continuing to set fire to several buildings. I couldn’t see Ember, but I could see other members of the Violet Troupe having been captured. Adam was yelling at them about something, and was beheading anybody who didn’t stand up and put on the Grimm masks he offered them. I knew that while he was occupied, most of the guards around the prisoners were starting to become a bit more relaxed, so I began planning how to break them out, but then some idiot rushed out and drew all attention to himself and the fact that he was trying to save everybody. He was easily defeated, and Adam then killed everybody captured just to prove a point. That was when I lost it and my semblance kicked it. I charged forward, and started beating up everybody in my way. I don’t remember much after that, other than somebody knocked me out, Adam taunted me, and then I passed out. When I woke up, I was covered by the ashes of the burned buildings, and everything was gone. The White Fang, the idiot who got everybody killed, everything. I started searching to try and find anything or anybody. I finally came across where my house used to be, and Natalie was sitting in there, crying over a corpse. That’s when I found this necklace, and that’s when I knew that it was Ember. According to Natls, she had left her hidden in a closet so that she could inspect something. I don’t know how it happened, but Ember died protecting my sister. After that, I was picked up by a group of Huntsmen from Vale who had seen the smoke, and we were taken back to Signal. We were allowed to live where Evan was staying for the summer, as he was doing an internship with Qrow. But I couldn’t stay there. I wanted to get Adam for what he had done. I still do. So, three years later, I left. I had planned on going alone, but when I made camp the first night, my sister appeared out of thin air, shivering in the cold. I was about to take her back to Signal, but I decided against it, and took her with me on my journey. It was thanks to her that I managed to keep myself sane, and alive. We traveled the kingdom for four long years, relying on the kindness of strangers more often than not. We fought Grimm, White Fang members, and anybody who was hurting anybody else that we could fine. It wasn’t easy, but it all lead here. I’m glad for that at least.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through all that Nathan.” Blake placed her hand on Nathan’s shoulder, but he knocked it away, and got up quickly backing away from Blake.

“NO!” He yelled at the top of his lungs as he continued to back away.

“I’m only trying to help Nathan. But I can’t if you won’t let me.”

“It’s not that. I refuse to let you be her replacement for me. I won’t force that on anybody.”

“What? What do you mean?” But Nathan never answered her question, as he ran off back to the dorms. Blake was about to pursue when Natalie appeared right in front of her.

“Let him go Blake” she said. “I think he just needs some time alone right now. He’ll join us when he’s ready.”

“But why would he see me as a replacement for Ember?”

“Because you care about him Blake. And because I don’t think he’s every really recovered from what happened seven years ago. I don’t know. Maybe he just can’t or doesn’t want to say goodbye.”

“Understandable. But something doesn’t add up for me.”

“What? With Ember?”

“No. The White Fang. Tell me, how much of my conversation with Miles did you overhear the other night?”

“What? What makes you think I….”

“The fact that I saw you reappear on the balcony from the roof.”

“Okay, fine. I heard everything.”

“Can you and Miles meet me later tonight by the ballroom?”

“…uh, could you actually ask him yourself? I’m still a little bit awkward talking to him about anything.”

“Fine. Just be there at around 9:00. Deal?”

“Deal. Now the, let’s get some lunch.”  


 

Miles was twiddling with his spaghetti, thinking about what he had seen earlier. An aura burn the color of a rainbow, against a grey yet burning pallet of death and devastation, and a flash of anger. 

“Whatcha thinking about?” Yang asked sliding over to him.

“Nothing. Just, a feeling like I’ve seen something before.” He replied.

“It’s JUST spaghetti!” Nora said with great annoyance, leading Miles to pinch his forehead. Leaning over to Ren, he whispered,

“How do you put up with her after all this time?”

“Well, I’ve known her all my life, and I love her very dearly.”

“Oh yes,” Jacob said clearly upset, “Because we all know that love conquers all, don’t we Jaune?!”

“Hey, like I told you, I don’t even know how that giant flash thing works.” Jaune said with his hands raised. “It just happens at ad infinitum, not on command!”

“Uhhhhhhh……..is that some kind of food?” Ruby asked clearly confused.

“No Ruby,” Weiss said. “It basically means at random.”

“Oh, that makes it SO MUCH BETTER!” Jacob yelled, and moved to an empty table. Pyrrha got up and started walking towards Jacob. Jaune was about to follow, but decided against it, remaining with everybody else.

“So, has anybody seen our missing trio since that little fiasco in class earlier?” As if on cue, as soon as Jaune said that, Blake and Natalie sat down with full trays of food.

“Sorry we’re late” Natalie said as she sat down. “Tracking down both Blake and my brother took longer than expected.

“So, where is your brother?” Ren asked.

“He still has some things he needs to work out for himself.” Blake said as she took a bite of her food. “Where’s Pyrrha?” Ren pointed over to where Jacob was sitting, and Blake saw Pyrrha sitting down at that table across from him.

“Hopefully that goes over better than your fight with him Jaune.” Weiss mentioned with some concern.

“Look, in all honesty, he should have beaten me. I mean, I was done. But, I guess I just found something through the power of love?” Yang snorted as soon as Jaune said this.

“Come on, even I’m not that corny!”

“Yeesh.” Miles said with his hand over his eyes. “But, I think that after watching that match, it makes sense that Jacob is upset. Going beyond what we discussed last night, Jacob seems to be a man driven to fight for honor, and feels that this loss taints that honor in his own way.”

“I didn’t get that actually.” Christy said. “I saw somebody who had pent up aggression who needed an outlet, and Jaune just happened to be right there. I mean, who knows what kind of memories and emotions seeing Pyrrha last night stirred up in him?”

“At this point, we’re just spinning in circles on this one.” Brooklyn interjected. “The two of them are having a civil conversation now, and if they can’t settle their differences that way, then I think we’re going to have a sparring match in the arena as soon as classes are done today.”

“I’m down with that” Ty said as he chugged down his drink. Miles smiled, then nodded in agreement. Then he noticed that Ruby seemed to have this evil look in her eye, staring right at Miles, with a pie in her hand. But then Weiss put her hand on her shoulder.

“If you start that now, then Jacob can’t talk to Pyrrha and everything will go right out the window. Both figuratively and literally. “ Ruby frowned and put the pie down, leaving Miles a bit worried about what a lunch in this cafeteria without social drama going on would look like.  


 

“You’re doing well for somebody who has lost their nerve.” Jacob said as he continued to eat. Pyrrha lowered her head as he said this. Neither of them spoke for a few solid minutes.

“I don’t blame you for hating me.” Pyrrha said, causing Jacob to put his fork down. “I’ve been constantly surrounded by praise and adoration, that I’ve reached a pedestal hardly anybody can reach. And when I started at Beacon, it was the same. Everybody held me up so high I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to make any friendships or connections. But that all changed when I met Jaune. He didn’t even know my name, and treated me just as he would anybody else. Thanks to him, I’ve formed friendships that will last a lifetime, and hopefully, a relationship with him that will last this lifetime and the one beyond it.”

“Oh whop de do. The power of love trumps all. Everything is coming up roses. Give me a break. Do you have any idea what your success meant for my life?”

“I know that everybody at the combat school expected you to match my level of success but…”

“Not just that. Even at a young age, my parents expected me to be better. And it’s not like they said, “Work hard and try to be better like Pyrrha.” No no. It was “You are a failure. Why can’t you be more like Pyrrha? Why aren’t you bringing the praise and honor to our family like she is?” They always told me to just give up in life unless I could surpass you. So that’s what I’m here for. I told Brooklyn it was so we could continue our rivalry, but it really it so I can finally surpass you.”

“What do you want out of life?”

“What?”

“All your life, you’ve just gone by what your parents want. What they want you to accomplish. What about you? What’s your pinnacle?”

“I’ve never had any other goal than to surpass you. And until that happens, I will continue to get stronger.”

“Okay, what about after you beat me?”

“Who knows? But I’ll move forward knowing that I finally surpassed you.”

“Then let’s settle it. I have class until 3:00. Meet me at the arena at 4:00 and we will finish this. Either I beat you and you try again later, or you win and we put this all behind us.”

“Fine. I’ll see you then.”  


 

As the clock started chiming for 4:00, Jacob got all his gear together, made sure all his knives were in the proper place, and headed out to the arena. There weren’t that many people there, as they really kept quiet about this. The only people that were in attendance were teams RWBY, JNPR, JCTB, and NEMN. Only Nathan wasn’t in attendance. As both Jacob and Pyrrha took their ready stances, they looked all around and realized that there was nobody to referee the match since it was after school hours. Ty noticed this and jumped down, revealing his Scroll so that he might officially sanction the match. As soon as everything was situated, the two of them began. Jacob was quick to start using his Semblance. He knew as long as he didn’t let Pyrrha touch him, she couldn’t use her own Semblance as easily as normal to slow him down. He quickly started clashing blades with Pyrrha at first to make it seem like they were on a level playing field, but he quickly moved away from that and started dodging her blows with relative ease. He began placing a few blows on her aura, but then she managed to predict where the sword was going, and blocked it with her arm. Jacob knew that this could be an issue now that she had made a magnetic connection with his sword and could start moving it about however she pleased. He quickly jumped back, let his semblance burn out, then threw a few dust knives to create a smoke ring. He was attempting to buy himself time for his semblance to reactivate, because he knew if he fought Pyrrha right now, he wouldn’t be able to land a single hit. However, Pyrrha anticipated this move, and morphed her sword to rifle form, and started shooting into the smoke. She was firing blindly, but she also knew that since Jacob lacked a shield, one or two lucky shots could either draw him out of the cloud, or cause his aura to be depleted enough that a few more hits would end the match. Another minute and a half passed. Jacob still had about 30 seconds until he was able to use his Semblance again, but he knew that Pyrrha would be expecting that move, so he threw a few thunder daggers out and created a bit of an electrical field on the ground to force Pyrrha to jump up and away, giving Jacob the chance to intercept her in mid-air and do a bit of damage. Pyrrha noticed this too late and her aura fell to about 45%. She blocked the rest of Jacob’s attacks but knew that given his aura level and the fact that his Semblance was almost recharged meant that she needed to give herself the upper hand in this situation. She quickly jumped back to the edge of the ring, and sent out a giant polarity charge that would send anything metal flying in the opposite direction, which would in theory, cause Jacob to lose his balance. But Jacob noticed this and just as Pyrrha launched her attack, Jacob re-entered his Time Dilation state. He stabbed his sword into the ground, dropped his belt of throwing knives, but took one out and threw it above the oncoming wave. Since he had removed all metal from his person, he passed through the wave with relative ease, grabbed the knife as it was coming down, and then threw it at the feet of Pyrrha. It all happened so fast that not even Miles could keep up with it. All he saw was the knife hit the ground and a flash of lightning enveloping Pyrrha, causing her aura to diminish down to 3%. Jacob immediately fell to his knees, pumped his fists in the air and screamed in victory.

“I’VE DONE IT! I’VE SURPASSED THE GODESS! I AM THE NEW SUPERIOR!”

“Jacob, it’s not like I’ve never lost before” Pyrrha said, slowly getting up. “You won this round, but who knows? Tomorrow you could lose to Brooklyn again, while I could lose to Natalie, or plenty of other options. It’s like I said before. You’ve finally beaten me. What now?”

“Now, I show my family that I have met and surpassed their expectations, and then maybe they’ll finally get off my back. My goals have been realized and…”

“So you’ve just been doing this for the sake of your family?” Christy asked, having jumped down from the stands. “What about you and your own honor? I know you think that this high honor is something only your parents can give you, but it’s not. You have to earn it yourself, no matter what anybody else tells you. You are the leader of Team JCTB now, and that in and of itself is a high honor only you possess. You don’t need to beat somebody to prove your worth. Clearly Ozpin saw that worth to begin with. Just take a step back, and remember what really matters.” Jacob pondered this, and then walked over to Pyrrha and Jaune, who had hopped over the side as well to help her up. He placed his fist on his other palm, and bowed to the two of them.

“Would you please give me a chance to talk to you two a bit later tonight?”

“That would be wonderful.” Pyrrha said, returning his bow. She stood up, gave Jaune a hug, and started heading for the exit.

“Well that was resolved rather easily” Miles said with a sigh of relief. “And here I thought this was going to be a long lasting feud.”

“Nah. Me and Weiss figured out our differences in like two days when we first met last year” Ruby chuckled. “Trust me, friendships are easily fixed when you know what is right.”

“Very interesting. I’ll have to remember that if I’m ever considered a friend amongst this group.” He turned to leave, but then Blake jumped right in front of him.

“Can we talk for a few minutes? Meet me at the plaza at 4:30.”

“Um….all right?”


	10. Episode 1: Chapter 6: Horde

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 6 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

“Are you sure this is all we can do for the time being?”

“For now Miles. I definitely think that we need to investigate Aequo a bit more thoroughly in time, but we won’t gain anything by just rushing in blindly.”

“Blake’s right. Also, if my brother finds out about you and who you are to him, it will be bad. He might even go beyond what happened with Blake today, and not even have any reason to hold himself back. Look, so long as we keep this quiet, Nathan might not go completely crazy, but he probably would be willing to destroy you given what happened.”

“And my actions regarding you and everybody else wouldn’t help that situation either.” Miles said folding his arms.

“Right." Blake then turned to leave.  "For now, we just stick to our normal lives. You two will keep this quiet, I’ll poke around some of my old connections, and we’ll solve this conspiracy before it gets too big.”

“All right then. I’ll head back to the dorms and check up on my brother.” Natalie said putting her hood up.

“Blake, we should rejoin our teams just so they don’t assume we’ve abandoned them or something.”

“Suits me fine.”  


 

It was a bit of a rainy day, but that didn’t stop Christy from trying to defeat the obstacle course that Beanie had set up for the students. The challenge was to try and get from one end of the room to the other, while utilizing both long ranged and close ranged combat skills in order to hold off opponents. Christy was able to hit targets at a distance just fine, but when the had to deal with close quarters, she knew that if she slowed down too much, then it not only affected her score, but also gave her enemies more time to close in. She tried to fight off the oncoming holograms, but time ran out, and a horn sounded. Beanie walked up with a Scroll with her score in his hand. He pushed a button and transferred the information to her own Scroll, showing she had gotten a B.

“About what I expected for your first time attempting this course. You were phenomenal when it came to ranged attacks, but your close quarters leaves a lot to be desired. I would recommend a training session with Professor Port as he does have a similar style to your own. He is someone who prefers long ranged to close quarters, but knows enough about both sides that it could benefit you greatly.” Christy didn’t say anything as she headed back up to the stands and sat down next to Evan. She was continually looking over her score, and was frustrated.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, placing his hand on her shoulder.

“Seriously, some kids barely make it through the course and get a C on the task. I don’t complete it at all and I get a B because I simply exceeded expectations. This is ridiculous!”

“No, they are just taking into consideration your performance in the Emerald Forest and are creating boundaries for you to surpass.”

“But I’ve always been held back by these “assumptions”. I’ve worked my way up to this point, and still they think I’m too weak to be taken seriously! Why can’t they treat me like everybody else?!” Evan was tempted to try and say something, but he knew that nothing he could say or do would change her mind while she was like this. He just simply turned his attention back to the next person to run through the maze. Ty was just tearing through the course. Literally and metaphorically. Every single hologram that came at him, he either sliced into a million pieces, or lodged on his sword to throw at other enemies.

“See, that’s what I need. A strong presence in close quarters combat. That’s what I need in order to get stronger.”

“I understand you want to get stronger Christy, but you have to think about the fact that we aren’t at Signal anymore. We aren’t just randomly going out on missions at the random whims of Professor Xiao Long and Professor Branwen. We have our own teams now, and I think we should look to what everybody needs rather than our own personal goals.”

“Oh please. You’re starting to sound like Ren.”

“I’m just saying, he might have a few points.”  


 

“Now listen well children, I know most of you here have very little experience with fighting Grimm, and you have extreme doubts of my ability as a Huntsman.”

“Understatement of the century.” Miles whispered to Ty. Professor Oobleck was prepping a bunch of first year teams for their first field mission of exterminating Grimm in the wide plains several miles from Vale. There had been reports of a small pack of Grimm that had been seen marching towards the kingdom, and it was determined that it was a safe enough size that students could take them on together.

“Now then, each of us will be taking our own airship to deal with and destroy the Grimm that are at this very moment, marching towards us! But fear not, that is why we are taking multiple airships! Each team will take an airship to place them at strategic locations depending on predetermined schematics. Each team is tasked with destroying as many Grimm as they can. It shouldn’t be too difficult, with everybody surrounding the Grimm, this shouldn’t be an issue at all. I assume that we should be done with all of this in about one hour’s time. Now then, make your preparations, go over your assignments, and be ready at all times!” As soon as he finished, each team received their instructions on their individual Scrolls.

“All right then Team NEMN! We are going to be striking from the right flank once we arrive!” Natalie said with excitement

“She seems chipper today” Miles said leaning towards Nathan.

“It makes sense. This is her first real chance to try being the team leader, and she wants to make a good impression on the faculty.”

“We shall see. There’s a big difference between a small herd of Grimm and a true swarm.”

“I looked at some schematics.” Evan pulled out his Scroll as he said this. “Given the size of the swarm, it’s only about as big as the one we encountered in the Emerald Forest, only a lot more powerful and variant Grimm rather than just simply one type.”

“Any Nevermores in the sky?” Natalie asked.

“Not in any of the initial reports. Looks like this should be pretty easy given our numbers.”

“All right then. Let’s get going.” As they headed for their airship, Evan swung by Christy super quickly. 

“You got your assignment?”

“Yeah. Me, Ty and Brooklyn are to take some early shots at them from the air, and then Ty jumps smack dab in the center and we go with Team AQWA to take out the Grimm that get into the crater that will be caused by the impact.”

“All right then. Just be safe out there all right?”

“I don’t need you constantly worrying about me Evan.”

“I know. I just do. You do the same with me.”

“Fair enough.” The two of them hugged, and the joined their teams on their respective airships.  


 

As the airships got closer to the horde, the teams all got in their ready positions. 

“All right students, remember the plan. We begin attacking the flanks, then Teams JCTB and AQWA will take out the center and begin weakening them from the inside. Be ready students! Our first approach begins now!” With that said, the first several airships started to form a circle around the advancing horde. The teams tasked with the front of the pack jumped first, then the side and rear teams jumped down and began their attacks. As Team NEMN made their landing, Natalie instantly rushed right into the thick of things, hacking monsters left and right.

“I love senseless violence missions.” Miles said with a smirk as he made his way into the fray. “Keeps me from getting bored.” Close behind him, Nathan leapt over the initial wall of creatures, throwing his clubs into a few of them nearest some other students. He then landed and continued to pummel his enemies. It seemed that he was noticing the motions and actions of the Grimm a lot better than usual. Evan was still descending a bit, as he was the last one out of the airship. He fired a few rounds from his rifle to slow his descent and damage the Grimm. He then landed, morphed his weapon into the spear, then threw it right into a line of Grimm, impaling and dissipating them all at once. He then activated his illusion space so he could move unnoticed by the Grimm and reclaim his spear. While doing so, he used his gauntlet to knock more Grimm out of his way and into the blades of his comrades. As soon as he got his spear back, he noticed a Goliath lumbering towards the front line, and the students up there still had their hands full with the Beowolves. He then jumped onto the creatures back, and sent his spear flying right through the creature’s head, causing it to tumble and crush several more Grimm before dissipating completely.  


 

Up in the airship, Brooklyn, Ty, and Christy were unloading on the Grimm down below. They had just heard from Oobleck that before they could dive down, they needed to help the students advance at least two lines before they could eject. Brooklyn was sniping Grimm left and right, Christy was hitting every enemy right where she needed to, and Ty was just blowing the life out of the Grimm like no tomorrow. As they did this, Jacob continued to observe the situation and gave out commands depending on what he saw. He didn’t use his semblance as the Grimm were not moving fast or dangerously enough to warrant him doing so. The students had almost reached the second line, but then something happened. The entire ship started veering out of control. Nobody on the ship knew what happened, but then Jacob looked out the other window and saw an airship that was not one of the ships sent out for the attack. The door on the other airship opened, and revealed members of the White Fang. Everybody quickly tried to turn and fire upon their ship, but they were too slow. A White Fang member with a lion’s tail took a rocket launcher from another member and fired it straight at the ship. It directly hit one of the engines, and it started veering towards a nearby grove of trees. The team attempted to jump out of the airship, but then a second rocket knocked them all back into the wall and forced the doors shut. As the ship continued to spiral downward, Ty started bashing the door with his sword trying to get them out of there.

“Stand back!” Jacob jumped up and stabbed one of his knives into the door, then jumped back. “Blast it Brooklyn! Blank cartridge!” Brooklyn nodded in understanding of this, and fired, causing the knife to explode and opening up the door. Most of the debris hit Ty, but it didn’t faze him. They all jumped out of the airship and into the trees, letting themselves down as best they can. When they landed, they were all a bit rattled, and had to move quickly to avoid falling debris from the airship. They all gathered around and got themselves situated.

“The White Fang is here. They must have been the ones who guided the horde this close to Vale.” Jacob said.

“Uh, no duh genius.” Ty said with an annoyed tone. “This is not good. We were one of the last airships in the sky with students in them, but all the others could still be destroyed and used against us. I say our play is get back to the battlefield as quickly as possible.”

“No.” Jacob started drawing some sketches in the dirt. “The White Fang may have some airships, but they know that unless they take out the students, then it doesn’t matter how many airships they blow up, we can still take out the Grimm and them no problem. They must have a base of operations around here somewhere. I say we try to find them and take them down to force them to retreat.”

“I’m down with that” Brooklyn said with determination.

“Let’s do it.” Ty said in agreement.

“Fine. I’ll heal everybody up so that we’re ready to go if we do find them.” Christy then took her hands and started going around healing everybody up to full, then they all drew their weapons and began making their way through the forest.  


 

The battle continued to rage on bellow, and Leo Odi was sensing the tide was flowing towards the humans.

“Has there been any word from anybody actually leading this mission?”

“Not recently sir. Our scout ships are still scanning the area for the information that he wants.”

“Again with his personal vendetta! He’s going to destroy the White Fang from the inside before the Kingdoms even get close to finding us! Patch me through to him!” The Lieutenant nodded, and handed him the radio.

“What news do you bring me Leo? Are THEY here?”

“No Adam. Team RWBY is not here. According to our scouts, all the students out here on this battlefield is a first year at Beacon with a few Huntsmen helping out to make sure they don’t die easily.”

“Fine then. Start taking down their airships; I’ll start sending our ground forces against their strongest to start breaking them apart.”

“About time” Leo said under his breath. “We’ve got eyes on an airship with students blasting Grimm from the sky. We’ll take them down first. Leo out.” He hung up and relayed information to the pilot, who deactivated the cloaking mechanism, and started heading towards the airship, getting a few bazookas ready to take them down after initial contact.  


 

As the White Fang started moving out in transportation vehicles, Adam walked over to his tent and placed his hand on the giant map. The map lit up, and then from the wall, a little slot appeared with a tiny indent in the middle. Adam then pulled a ring off his finger and inserted it into the slot, revealing a video panel.

“This is the direct encrypted line. Make this fast Taurus.”

“My assumption was wrong. It turns out that there were more students than previously anticipated. This puts the side objective at risk. I request some backup in order to accomplish this.”

“That will not be necessary Adam. This was foreseen so we have someone coming in to help you with the plan.”

“With all due respect,” Adam said raising his fist in protest, “I can take care of the mission on my own. I don’t need some random member of the Order coming in to…”

“You misunderstand Adam. One of the Four is coming to assist you.” Adam immediately lowered his fist and took a step back.

“Which one is it?”

“The situation caught the attention of Lord Memoriare. Given his abilities, he can find what we are looking for, and do so much quicker than if you just search for it by yourself. Also, given your profile with the Four Kingdoms, you could draw much more attention to you rather than our real target. Prepare everything. He will be arriving soon.”

“Of course.”  


 

It was clear that the Grimm were starting to become fewer, but the fact that a random airship was flying around attempting to take down other airships started concerning Miles. He rushed over to Natalie who was just finishing off a Griffon type.

“Hey, you seeing what’s been happening in the skies lately?”

“I did, but I’ve been a bit too busy to do something about it.”

“We need to take action. I’m thinking maybe I fly up there and slice it right in half.”

“That could work. Get it done, we need to make sure we have a way of getting home once we finish these things off.”

“On it. Give me a speed boost?”

“Right.” Natalie then jumped into a squatted position, and Miles landed on her back, then Natalie fired a round from her weapon propelling Miles to terminal velocity towards the enemy ship. He made contact easy, slicing the airship in two pieces, and quickly adjusting their trajectory to crash into the Grimm still unaffected in the middle. But it was only a brief victory, as Miles started descending, he noticed that there was a large group of people starting to pour out of the forest where the airship crashed. He immediately recognized the White Fang masks, and noticed that the commander he had knocked out of the airship was not only White Fang, but also the lion tailed soldier that he fought against the night he met Blake. Miles adjusted his fall towards his teammates and landed right on top of a Beowolf and killed it quickly.

“The White Fang is moving in!”

“What?” yelled Nathan. “What could they possibly gain from doing something like that?”

“Beats me, but we need to start cutting through these creatures a lot faster. The White Fang is going to hit our own flank rather quickly, and I don’t think they plan on fighting the Grimm as well as us.”

“All right then.” Natalie twirled her weapon around and faced the direction the White Fang was advancing from on the other side of the Grimm, and blasted herself forward while twirling like a propeller, destroying the Grimm and creating a path for her teammates to follow. As they started making their way through, Adam emerged from the forest.

“Bringing them to their knees is not enough with these fools. Eradicate them without mercy!” He then drew his sword and got ready to start engaging some of the students of Beacon, with a sick smile on his face.

“Time to take the first step.”


	11. Episode 1: Chapter 7: Taking Steps Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 7 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

Ruby was just twiddling with her thumbs when her Scroll went off. It was blasting a loud alarm, and was flashing red. She tried to turn it off, but then noticed the same thing was happening with her sister’s Scroll. Blake and Weiss then rushed in, the same thing happening to theirs as well.

“Any idea what’s happening Ruby?”

“No idea Weiss. But I think we should try heading to the courtyard to find out.”

“Not a bad plan” Yang said. “I’ll see if this noise actually woke Nora up and get Team JNPR with us in a few minutes.” As soon as she said this, a hologram of Professor Goodwitch appeared.

“Attention students, there is an urgent situation regarding the Grimm horde that the first years were tasked with defeating today. The White Fang has appeared on the scene and outnumbers out Huntsmen. We need all available students to get aboard dropships and begin making their way to the Great Plain. I repeat…” Ruby put her Scroll away as soon as Goodwitch finished the first time.

“Yang, punch Nora awake if you have to. I think we’re going to need all hands on deck for this one.”

“On it.” Yang then quickly ran over to their neighbor’s room while the others quickly got changed into their fighting outfits and started heading for the airship docks. They quickly jumped on board and waited a few seconds for Yang, but she didn’t show up.

“Where the heck is she?!” Blake was starting to get impatient. Then Ruby noticed her sister was running towards them at full tilt spinning her finger in the air telling them to take off.

“Pilot, get us off the ground!” Ruby yelled.  The pilot nodded and started taking off, as to which, Yang launched herself towards the open door and landed perfectly right inside.

“All right then sis, what’s the plan?”

“Not sure yet. I’ve been trying to turn off this stupid alarm system so I could see what Professor Oobleck’s 3D battlefield could show us.”

“Maybe once we’re clear of the school it will turn off. It makes the most sense.”

“Weiss is right. Besides, it’ll be about twenty minutes at most before we reach where the horde was last spotted. I’m sure we’ll find out what we need to know in time Ruby.”

“I hope so Blake. I just pray none of our friends are in any trouble.”  


 

“We are so dead” Brooklyn said as Team JCTB continued to walk through the forest.

“Brooklyn, the whole point of a stealthy approach is to NOT be seen or heard!”

“Jacob, that isn’t exactly helping” Christy whispered. “Let’s just focus on what needs to be done. I’m pretty sure I just saw an airship take off in the distance. We find out where it came from, we find the White Fang’s base of operations.”

“Fine. Let’s keep moving.” They all shut up and continued forward, soon seeing a clearing infested with White Fang members, and the airship from earlier touching down. As the door opened, out stepped an old man with a flowing red robe and white hair. As soon as he was clear of the airship, it took off and flew away from where the camp was set up.

“Lord Memoriare. We are honored by your presence.”

“Enough with the pleasantries lieutenant. I’m only here because Adam was unable to find what we needed in order to attain what we desire. Let me see the map of the surrounding area.”

“Of course sir. According to our schematics, the temple with the runes should be somewhere in this grove, but we’ve already checked these different spots, and still no sign of it. We still have these areas here, here, and here to check, but with the early arrival of the huntsmen academy, I’m afraid we might be forced to flee in a short period of time.”

“Don’t bother. I think I know the quickest way to solve this problem. I will check the area about three clicks from here, you will investigate the area closest to us, and if we are both unsuccessful, we will meet in the middle with the final location. And if one of us is successful on our first attempt, we will meet at that location if the other does not arrive in the middle in a set amount of time. But we don’t have much time to waste now. Lets get moving.”

“Yes sir.” The Lieutenant folded up the map, grabbed a second copy and gave it to Memoriare and the two of them headed off into the forest.”

“What should we do Jacob?” Ty whispered. “Should we take out the camp or should we follow them?”

“You three stay here. I’ll follow the robed guy. Once we are about fifteen minutes away, start attacking the camp. I’ll be back.” As soon as he said that, he started moving towards the robed person, and soon vanished into the foliage.

“Ugh. I hate waiting.” Ty groaned.  


 

Miles sliced through another Creep as he continued to make his way towards the White Fang members. The horde was starting to thin out, but it was clear that with the White Fang present, there were going to be a ton of casualties.

“Hey, we need to get over to those White Fang members sooner rather than later!”

“Look, I know that they are a problem,” Natalie said while slicing a Beowolf in half, “but without the middle of the horde strike team, things are starting to fall apart at the seams here.”

“Fine then. How about you three take care of the Grimm while I make sure we don’t lose anymore students to that lunatic?” 

“Forget that.” Nathan jumped over from one of the fallen Deathstalkers. “The four of us should be able to take those losers, and then the other students might be able to deal with the Grimm for us.”

“Not a bad idea” Evan chimed in. “Plus, by continuing that way, we get closer to where Christy’s ship crashed, and I want to make sure she’s all right. I mean I’m sure she is but…” While he was saying this an Ursa leapt up and tried to slice him in half, but Miles threw one of his swords smack dab into the middle of its face.

“Less talking more doing. I’m going.” With that said, he pulled his sword out from the dissipating monsters head, and started running towards the White Fang. Nathan bashed the head of a Boarbatusk and rushed after him.

“No way am I missing this!” As soon as he rushed after Miles, Evan followed in suit.

“You know, I AM the team leader here…” Natalie fumed as she sliced another Grimm in two before following after them.  


 

The airship began making the approach to the battlefield, and then another started flying right next to them, filled with more White Fang members, but Yang reacted quickly, blasting one of the engines with her shotgun gauntlets, causing it to spiral out of control and land smack dab in the middle of the Grimm horde.

“Good reactions sis! Now then, it looks like the Grimm are the least of our worries now. So I think we should take out the White Fang moving in over there.”

“Yeah, no duh Sherlock.” Weiss said jokingly.

“Weiss, there’s a time and a place for that. Not now.”

“Excuse me princess.”

“Princess? This from the lady who probably defines a modern princess?”

“Yang, Weiss, this isn’t helping our friends. Lets just get down there.” Blake said drawing her weapon.

“Blake’s right." Yang said loading her weapons.  "Pilot! Take us over to where the White Fang is pouring out!”  


 

Jaune looked down at the giant horde of Grimm and swallowed nervously.

“It’s okay Jaune. We’ve dealt with a lot worse about half a year ago now.”

“You almost died last time Pyrrha. That isn’t a very pleasant thought.”

“Oh don’t be silly Jaune!” Nora said with a smile as she morphed her hammer into gun mode and shot a nearby Griffon in the sky. “We’re here for cleanup! It’s not like we have to fight from beginning to end like last time!”

“Nora’s right. Besides, we’ve got our own specific orders from Professor Oobleck. We need to find Team JCTB and help them out with whatever they need.”

“They have a healer on their team, I’m pretty sure they don’t need an evac.”

“They could use help though Jaune. Besides, judging by the positioning of the White Fang troops, their current base of operations could be hidden within that foliage.” As soon as Pyrrha said this, something exploded within the forest.

“Well, I don’t think we’ll have a hard time finding Team JCTB.”  


 

Miles was slicing up White Fang members left and right when suddenly the ground started shaking, causing several of his enemies to lose their footing and fall over. But what caught his attention was the fact that only two people didn’t fall over. The first was the stranger with the lion tail, and the second was Adam Taurus. Gritting his teeth, he rushed forward and clashed with the red haired leader of the White Fang, causing sparks to fly from their two swords.

“I’ve been looking forward to this.”

“So, we meet again. I’m sorry…” as he said this Adam did a quick maneuver knocking Miles to the side. “…but my true opponent is here.” As he said this, something landed and exploded in the middle of all the White Fang troops that were coming out of the forest hoping to flank the rest of Team NEMN. Out of the flames rose Yang, rushing forward and beating up anybody who stood in her way. Landing in the devastation she left behind was the rest of Team RWBY.

“Ice flower!” As soon as Ruby said this, Weiss created a glyph in front of the sniper portion of Ruby’s scythe. Firing a few rounds, the blasts created blocks of ice trapping several White Fang members as well as hitting a few Grimm behind them as well. Meanwhile, Blake immediately started dealing with White Fang members in the immediate area. Adam smiled, and started walking towards her, preparing his sword with energy to slice whoever was in his way.

“BLAKE! LOOK OUT!” As Blake turned as per Ruby’s warning, she noticed that Adam had completely charged his attack and was heading straight for her. She tried to ready her defense, but a sharp pain hit her leg as Leo had thrown one of his knives into her leg, causing her to lose her balance, leaving her wide open. She closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable, but she didn’t feel anything. All she heard was a loud clang. Looking up, she saw Miles, blocking Adam’s sword with both of his.

“Your battle lies with me, Taurus.”

“Such a pain. Fine. Leo, take care of the traitors friends. I’m going to swat this gnat off of the face of Remnant once and for all.”

“You will try.”  
  


 

Christy was just enjoying herself like there was no tomorrow. The White Fang were easy opponents. While they did help that surprise was on their side, it did feel great to just whale away on opponents at close range without fear of being hurt or surrounded. At one point even, she thought she was going to be completely overwhelmed by the enemies at close quarters, but managed to fight them all off with relative ease. Ty and Brooklyn were having relative success with their opponents as well, sending anybody in their path flying all the while launching blasts at dangerous weapon depots to create even more havoc amongst the camp. The White Fang members that were present had no idea how to retaliate, but started pulling themselves together. One of them even grabbed a sniper rifle and aimed straight at Brooklyn’s head, but never managed to fire a shot before Nora smashed her hammer right on his head. The rest of Team JNPR landed as well as an airship containing Professor Goodwitch and Beanie. Beanie jumped out of the airship and used a giant bubble of water to slow his descent, and when he reached the ground, he started sending out water blasts that swept not only the enemy away, but the camp and weapons as well. As soon as that was finished, they started wrapping up with defeating the last of the White Fang members and arresting every one that was still alive. While this was happening, Pyrrha was looking all over the camp.

“Where’s Jacob?”

“He tailed some guy in a red robe that arrived here about twenty minutes ago” Brooklyn said. “They went off in that direction.”

“Hopefully we can find them quickly. Let’s get moving.” As soon as she said this, a flare went off deep in the grove that was high enough to see for miles.

“We might want to start there. I’ve got the lead.” Ty morphed his weapon back into a sword and started moving forward at a great pace, with everybody else right behind him.  


 

“Do you really think you can protect her from me you pathetic imbecile?”

“Don’t get coy with me Taurus. I don’t care about your vendetta with anybody except me. I’m going to kill you myself and destroy the White Fang starting with you.”

“Such a pathetic goal for somebody who can’t even lift a finger to my power” Adam said as he sliced at Miles, forcing him back. Miles gathered himself and prepared for another bout, but then Nathan jumped past him, his aura burn a deep red, and was strongest around his weapons.

“Nathan! Don’t hit his sword!” But Blake’s warning came too late as he hit Adam’s sword right in the middle giving Adam even more energy to prepare for his next moonslicer attack.

“MY FAMILY IS DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!” Nathan yelled at the top of his lungs. “FIRST THAT FOOL ATTACKED YOU LEADING TO ALL THEIR DEATHS, AND THEN YOUR FLUNKIES KILLED MY TEACHER! I WILL NOT REST UNTIL THEY ARE ALL AVENGED!”

“But who do you really blame, me or the person who provoked me?”

“SHUT UP!”

“What does it matter really? I was going to kill those fools no matter what happened. Perhaps you should thank that fool who provoked me for ending their suffering quicker.”

“I SAID SHUT UP!” Nathan continued to try and bash Adam to a pulp, but Adam remained calm and continued to fight off his attacks. Others tried to help Nathan, but the remaining White Fang members and some of the Grimm that had peeled off from the horde and started advancing towards the big battle off to the side. Natalie was completely overwhelmed by the number of Grimm coming in, Team RWBY had fallen back to Blake to make sure she wasn’t injured more than she already was, Evan was busy fighting Leo, while Miles was trying to find an opening to get back into the fight with Adam. Then, a flare went off within the forest, causing both Adam and Leo to abandon their opponents and try to wave down an airship. As soon as they did, Leo punched the ground creating a huge dust cloud around everybody in the area. Weiss quickly countered this by using a glyph to blow away the dust, but by that time, both Adam and Leo were on an airship heading into the forest.

“Blast. I can’t reach them in time.” Miles collapsed on the ground next to Blake, who was still wincing from her leg injury.

“Don’t worry about it. If there’s one thing that Adam has learned from me overtime, it’s running away.”

“Never took you for the fearful type.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

“OH FOR PETE’S SAKE GET A ROOM!” The two of them looked up angrily expecting to see Yang, but it was actually Nathan. “Seriously, we can’t go five seconds without you two having to talk to each other?”

“See Blake? This kid gets it.” Yang put her arm around Nathan and gave him a noogie.

“Yang, I swear, shut up.” Blake said glaring right at the two of them.

“I will end both of you if you don’t shut your mouths.” Miles said grasping one of his swords.

“Oh no, mad Blake and emo little Miles. Whatcha gonna do to me? Cut my arm off?”

“Don’t tempt me lady.” Everybody continued to laugh, leaving Miles and Blake once again, slightly embarrassed.

“Hey, I hate to break up a fun time” Evan jumped in with earnest. “And even though the Grimm horde is pretty much gone at this point, can we please see if Team JNPR found the others? I’m worried for everybody.”

“That’s the most sensible thing I’ve heard in the last few seconds” Miles said with a sigh of relief. “All right then, let’s get going.”  


 

Ty and Pyrrha continued to slice through whatever foliage was in their way. An airship had passed over them a few minutes ago, and they knew if Jacob were in trouble, there would be a chance that he could be captured. As they continued forwards, the sound of the airship’s engine was growing louder.

“Brooklyn! Chirsty! Get ready to blast whoever is out there! We have no idea how much time we have in order to stop them!”

“Right!” The two ladies said this and morphed their weapons to ranged form. As they got closer to the engines, they saw a clearing ahead, but couldn’t make out what was happening. As they broke through the tree line, they saw the red robed man with his hands clasped on Jacob’s head, as if he was interrogating him or something. Not thinking twice, Brooklyn took a shot at the stranger’s head. But as she pulled the trigger, he jumped away from Jacob and fell backwards.

“No no no no! I still have work to finish!”

“Lord Memoriare! We have to go now!” Looking over at the airship, then back at the oncoming group of fighters, he gathered himself, and rushed over to the airship as it began taking off. Brooklyn and Christy attempted to shoot down the ship, but it either missed important areas, or Adam and Leo blocked the shots with their weapons. The airship took off leaving everybody to go over to where Jacob was lying unconscious.

“Jacob! Are you okay?”

“Don’t think he can hear you Pyrrha. He’s out for the count.”

“Ty’s right. Let me see if I can’t help wake him up. Or at least reduce some of the pain he might feel when he does.” Christy then placed her hands on his head and let the healing powers flow right into him. But when she did, she only did so for a few seconds. She looked at him and at her hands completely confused.

“Is something wrong?”

“Well the thing is, usually it takes a lot of aura out of me in order to heal somebody fully. I’ve hardly used any and his body doesn’t need any more.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing. Lets get him back to Beacon and let him rest up for the night. Ty, can you carry him?”

“I just destroyed a terrorist base and ran almost two miles in the past half an hour. I can definitely carry my team leader to an airship.”  


 

Jacob woke up with a crazy headache, not sure where he was. Observing his surroundings, he was in the infirmary back at Beacon. Pyrrha and Jaune were right next to his bed on a couch, sleeping peacefully. He decided not to wake them, but rather fell back asleep. When he woke up again, the doctor was looking over him.

“Aha. He’s awake. How do you feel Mr. Strohl?”

“Like something was ripped out of my head.”

“How do you mean?”

“I’m not really sure. It kind of feels like a headache, but also like there’s nothing there to hurt at all.”

“Well at least there wasn’t any lasting damage.” Pyrrha walked over to Jacob and placed her hand on his shoulder, Jaune was right behind her.

“You kind of gave us a scare there man.” Jaune said with a smile.

“Shut up blondie.”

“Oh, I hope Yang didn’t hear that.” Pyrrha joked.

“I did, but Jauney boy is a better weapon in my arsenal I think!” Yang said as she walked in.

“Good to know” Jaune said as he lowered his head in humiliation.”

“How goes it fearless leader?” Brooklyn smiled over Jacob looking relieved at his recovery.

“I’m doing all right. I just don’t really know how to feel right now.”

“Well that guy in the red robe looked like he did a number on you.”

“He did? I don’t remember fighting him.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Looking up, Jacob saw Miles had walked into the room and had just asked the question.

“Well, I was following him through the forest, and then we reached these old ruins. There was some kind of zodiac symbol on the ground. I couldn’t make out what was on it, but I do remember that the robed man was translating something from said zodiac.”

“What did he say?”

“I’m not sure…it’s a little fuzzy. Like the memory is corrupted or something.”

“What CAN you remember?”

“I think he said something like, the four of the seasons, the children of the sun as different as night and day, and…. and…. I can’t remember anything after that.”

“Well, that’s about as much as we need for now. Professor Goodwitch is letting you take a few days off from class to recover. We took some pretty bad losses out there yesterday. And we’re going to need everybody at full strength now that we know the White Fang isn’t going to sit idle anymore. Take it easy man.”

“I will. Thanks.” With that, everybody except for Pyrrha and Jaune cleared out.

“Jaune darling? Will you please give us a few minutes?”

“Sure Pyrrha. I’ll be waiting outside.” Jaune left and the two of them sat in silence for a few minutes.

“I’m sorry about all this. I would have been there sooner but…” but before Pyrrha could finish, Jacob held his hand up to cut her off.

“You should stop beating yourself up Pyrrha.” Pyrrha looked over at Jacob, slightly confused.

“But if I had just moved a little faster to trying to help you…”

“Look, you can’t continue blaming yourself for everything. What happened yesterday wasn’t your fault. And also, I don’t have to forgive you for what happened at the Vytal festival last year because there’s nothing to forgive. I was so wrapped up in the idea that I needed to please my parents that I forgot what inspired me to become a Huntsman in the first place.”

“What’s that?”

“Your kindness. You just stood out to me back then. While my parents were constantly pushing me to follow the rules and follow guidelines and only care about my own status, you were somebody that despite having all that praise continued to focus on what was right. That’s something I admire. At least I did until I got all vengeful and stuff. Once I started at Sanctum, I felt like I had to make a name for myself. I had forgotten what was most important to me. I mean, for almost all my life, my goal was beating you. That’s not the honorable thing to do in the slightest. We’re both on the same side here. I’m sorry about what I did and said a few weeks ago.”

“That’s fine Jacob. You were just letting off some steam, which I can understand. I would probably have felt the same way if I were in your shoes. Also, I seriously believe you and Jaune might have more in common than you realize.”

“I think you might be right. Tell me, does he play chess?”

“He’s played a bit against Ren. Why do you ask?

“I think that would be a great way for me to get to know him.”  
  


 

“Well, all’s well that ends well I guess.” Nathan said with a smile.

“Not a bad first field day as team leader. I’ll give you that kid.” Miles said punching Natalie in the shoulder.

“Just call me Natalie. Please?”

“Fine. Fair enough Natalie.” Natalie cracked a smile as Miles said this.

“So, what do we do now?” Blake asked.

“Not sure Blake." Miles said placing his hands behind his head.  "Until we know what exactly happened to Jacob, we should just proceed with what we talked about a while back and continue to take things one step at a time.”

“That makes sense to me.”

“Whatcha doing?” Yang leaned in over Miles’ shoulder.

“Talking, which YOU seem to be fluent in.”

“Oooh. Feisty. Hey, can I borrow Natls for a second?”

“I guess. We were almost done anyways.” Natalie walked over to Yang and whispered something in her ear, which caused Natalie to giggle a little bit.

“This can’t be good.” Blake said rolling her eyes.

“Why’s that?” Miles said, now growing slightly concerned.

“The last time Yang did something like this and got Ruby to chuckle like that, our friend Neptune ended up floating on a mattress out on the school lake.”

“Maybe I should sleep on the ceiling tonight then or something.” Yang and Natalie walked over to the two of them, grinning from ear to ear.

“So Blake, Miles, want to go into town with everybody tomorrow?”

“Huh?”


	12. Episode 1: Chapter 8: Lazy Afternoons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 8 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

Miles was just sitting at the local pastry café out on the patio in downtown Vale waiting for everybody to show up. Yang had suggested that after the long battle, everybody should try and have some fun since they were going to have the next day off. Jacob declined because he was still recovering a bit as did Jaune, Pyrrha, and Brooklyn opting to just relax and hang out with Jacob during the day. Miles just simply his cup of tea content with waiting for everyone in the warm breeze.

“What flavor is your tea if you don’t mind my asking?” Miles looked up and saw Blake smiling with a cup of tea in her hands having just exited the inside of the café.

“Constant Comment with a dash of honey. How about you?”

“Green Tea with a pinch of sugar. Anybody else shown up yet?”

“Nope. Pull up a chair. Looks like nobody’s going to show up for a while.” Blake set her tea down on the table and sat down across from Miles. The two of them sat there in silence just simply sipping tea.

“So how’s the team been doing since yesterday?”

“Pretty good. It went a lot better than it could have turned out. You and everybody else who provided backup were a huge part of that. If Team CFVY didn’t show up when they did, we would have had our backs up against the wall with Grimm.”

“Yeah, Coco seems to just tear through Grimm with her Gatling Gun.”

“Why doesn’t she do that more consistently?”

“If I remember right, the super powerful cartridges she buys for her weapon aren’t that easy to manufacture so she only pulls them out in emergencies if she has time. If not, then we have a situation similar to the Cinder Fall incident a while back.”

“Fair point. What exactly did happen during that incident if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Better get comfortable. It’s a long story.”

“Eh. Hopefully some of the others will show up during the story.”  


 

Yang, Ruby, and the two Grover siblings were hiding out around the corner from the café. They were trying their best not to giggle at Blake and Miles any more than they already were.

“Oh man, this is just perfect!”

“I swear, they had better at least hold hands or something by the end of the day.”

“Relax Yang. Given the scenarios we have planned today, I think this will work out just perfectly.”

“Nathan’s right. Plus, the day is still young. The two of them could go out and do their own thing and that could still work out great.”

“All right then, smart guy, lets shut up and see if this works out or not.”

“I’m not averting my gaze for any reason Yang.”

“What are you doing?” Everybody jumped and turned to see Weiss, Ren, Nora, Christy and Evan all standing behind them with confused looks on their faces. Quickly, each of them grabbed somebody and quickly ran away around the corner.

“You guys, what are you doing here?!” Yang whispered angrily.

“Uh…. Blake told me that we were all getting together at the café today for some much deserved rest after what happened yesterday” Weiss said.

“Yeah, Miles told us the same thing when he went to check in on Jacob last night” Evan added.

“Gosh dangit. Ruby, I told you to make sure they were in on the plan!”

“Well Blake was in the room when I was about to tell Weiss and I wasn’t going to see anybody from Team JCTB or JNPR anytime soon!”

“Can you please tell us what’s going on?”

“Okay fine Weiss. The plan was that we were going to see what would happen if we left Miles and Blake alone for the day and maybe try to see if it evolves into a date.”

“…Our only free day for a while and you planned on us spending it with causing Miles and Blake even more grief?”

“Come on!” Nathan chimed in. “It’s funny to watch them!”

“Well if that’s it, then I’m going to go enjoy my day off.”

“Wait Weiss! Could you please go someplace other than the café? We would really like to see this go through.” Weiss pondered the drummer’s request, shrugged her shoulders and turned to leave in the opposite direction of the café. 

“Smooth moves purple pants.” Yang commented. “Not even I can charm Weiss that easily.”

“There’s a difference between negotiations and just simply punching somebody in the face Yang.”

“Careful, I may not have my gauntlets activated, but I can still knock your block off.”

“Yeah. I get that. You are the best. Plus, you’ve got a nice….”

“VEST!!!” Natalie jumped in between the two and interjected before Nathan could finish his sentence.

“Oh come on Natls!”

“I’ve heard you practicing that one, and I say thee nay!”

“Aw, you’re no fun Natls!” Yang cracked a big smile and put her in a chokehold, leaving Natalie gasping for breath.  
“Sis, I hardly survive that now, what chance do you think Natls has?” Ruby said nervously.

“Ah, she can take it.” Yang said releasing Natalie from her clutches. “Besides, Nathan, my eyes are up here.” Nathan started getting nervous, fully expecting Yang to punch him for his attempted innuendo. “Stop staring at my gauntlets please.” As soon as Yang said this, Nathan relaxed, leaving him wide open for Yang to punch him lightly on the shoulder. Ruby got a bit of a smirk on her face as soon as she saw this and grabbed Natalie by the hood.

“You know, I think four people spying on those two is a bit much. Why don’t me and Natalie go join Weiss and the others while you two just continue to have some fun!”

“Wait, what?” Ruby started dragging Natalie away from Yang and Nathan despite her complaints. As soon as they were away, Ruby let Natalie go.

“What was that about Ruby? I want to see what happens!”

“I know, I do too, but the way Yang’s been acting around your brother, I feel like a third and fourth wheel are a bit too much.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Let’s just say I think my sister is actually going to have somebody other than Blake to share a dance with next month.”

“Oh. I get it now. Maybe we should try to do what we did with Miles and Blake to Nathan and Yang?”

“Nah. They’d spot us a mile away.”

“True enough. All right then. Where did everybody go for lunch again?”

“Follow me. I think I saw them go this way.”  


 

“So they haven’t found Mercury or Emerald yet?” Miles said sipping his tea.

“No. After Ruby caught Cinder by surprise on top of Beacon Tower, everything started falling apart for the enemy. Cinder had her leg cut off, the Grimm she and the White Fang led started losing focus and became easier to defeat, and Mercury and Emerald just ran off, not sure where to go. The White Fang didn’t take them, and they didn’t want to surrender. So now we have no idea where they might be, and we have no idea what their next move is.”

“I wouldn’t worry about them too much Blake. Those two are more like mercenaries than people who actually believed in Cinder’s vision. Besides, if they were such loose cannons, I’m sure the White Fang would have dealt with them already. So what did they do with Cinder?”

“With her leg gone, she passed out from the shock of it, leaving her vulnerable. So Atlas used a technology to take the power she had absorbed from Amber and stored it in a vessel to give to somebody they will deem worthy in time.”

“Pyrrha didn’t accept the offer to be the new maiden?”

“No. After she nearly died at Cinder’s hands, she decided she still needed to improve her own skills before she could accept ultimate power like that of a maiden.”

“Interesting. And did anybody slay that giant dragon Grimm thing?”

“Yang and Velvet wounded it. After that, it flew out of the city and crashed into the mountains. But for some reason, the task force they sent out to finish it off never found it.”

“Maybe it dissipated at a different rate than normal Grimm?”

“Who knows? I sleep better at night knowing it hasn’t come back since then.”

“Fair point.” Suddenly, the nearby bell tower started chiming for three in the afternoon. Miles groaned and poured himself another cup from his teapot.

“It’s been almost an hour since we were supposed to meet up with everybody. Did something happen?”

“Beats me. I haven’t gotten any texts from anybody saying anything. Maybe we should just head back to Beacon.”

“Sounds good to me.” The two of them got up, placed their silverware in the collection bin, and started heading back up Main Street. But all of a sudden, a large parade turned the corner.

“Oh nuts, was that today? I could have sworn it was next week!”

“What the flip is this thing Blake?” Before she could answer his question, he saw what it was. A giant parade celebrating dogs, cats, and many different animals heading right for them.

“Vale does this thing every other year. Supposed to be some kind of “celebration of our animal brethren” or something stupid like that.”

“Isn’t that kind of a racist thing to do?”

“Depends on the context. I think there was only one time where I did a picket protesting the parade with the White Fang. But that was all the way back when the parade was still a young idea.”

“Either way, I am not getting stuck in that mess.”

“Ditto. Maybe we can hang out here until it passes?” Suddenly, a pair of servers with big glasses quickly placed feeding bowls for the animals that would be passing by soon.

“Apparently not. I think there’s an arcade down the road from here. That should keep us clear of this parade.” Blake said with a sigh.

“Suddenly the Grimm horde from yesterday seems a lot more inviting.”  


 

“Oof. That was too close.” Yang pulled off her waitress outfit and took off her big glasses.

“Can’t believe that worked” Nathan said as he pulled off his big glasses as well. “I would have figured Miles would have just walked up over the buildings away from everything or something.”

“Not with Blake around, and you see therein lies the game” Yang said with an evil smile. “I’ve seen the arcade they’re going to. That place will be better for something to happen than them just sitting around a café. Lame! Now let’s stay close behind them before we get swept into that parade ourselves!” The two of them took off after the unsuspecting duo, staying far enough behind they wouldn’t be seen.

“Hey Yang?”

“Yeah what’s up Nathan?”

“Why did you decide to do this today? And why just those two?”

“Because I love messing with people, and who better to mess with than the most serious members of both my team and your team!”

“Look, I know you’re a prankster, but I know you aren’t that slaphappy. Back when we first met, you made things funny, but kept them serious at the same time. So what’s the real reason for this “date” we’re having Miles and Blake have?” Yang sighed, as she was clearly not going to fool him whatsoever.

“After yesterday, I feel like if we just try to have some fun, it would be better for everybody. Especially given the appearance of Adam yesterday.” Nathan clenched his fist at the mention of his name.

“I thought I had him, but he ran off like a coward.”

“You know, something like that happened back during the Cinder Fall incident, just the other way around.”

“How so?”

“Well, when the White Fang attacked the school, that was the first time Blake had seen Adam since she left their group. That shook her up pretty bad, so she just ran off as soon as the battle was over.”

“Why did she do that?”  


 

“Because I was scared.”

“You? Blake Belladonna, were scared? Of what?”

“Of everything I had done coming back again to haunt me. Adam represents everything I hate about who I am. He wants a revolution for my people, but at the expense of human lives. And the worst part was, I followed him for many years. It wasn’t until he attacked an innocent transport that I opened my eyes to the monster he was. And when he came back, I didn’t know what to do, so I ran off and tried to figure out what I stood for.”  


 

“So Blake ran off because she was scared of her past?”

“Yeah. Me, Ruby and Weiss started looking for her despite the fact that every major political figure in Remnant wanted to question us about how we did what we did against Cinder that night. I managed to find her, holed up in some old cave out by Mountain Glenn. She had been going about destroying Grimm and doing whatever she could to just hide from her problems.”

“So how did you convince her to come back?”  


 

“She told me to grow up.”

“I wouldn’t think that the situation being described wouldn’t have warranted that response.”

“But they did. I couldn’t handle something from my past and I just ran. That was the second time I had run away from my problems. First from the White Fang, and then from my friends because I was too afraid to face what I ran away from in the first place. Yang reminded me that we don’t have to face our fears alone. It was just like when I thought I was the only one who could fight back against them about a year ago now. Yang reminded me that people care about me and I can’t just throw their good intentions for the sake of my own personal weakness. Besides, we are strongest together.”

“I guess that makes sense. After what happened in Aequo, I felt like I was the only one who could bring Adam to justice. And even before I came to this school when I was working with Ty, I thought this would be my fight to finish and no one else’s. But now that I’ve been working with a team, it’s pretty clear I can’t do everything by myself. I might be able to one day, but not right now. Not in the state I’m in.”

“You’ll be fine. Your past doesn’t have to define who you are now. It doesn’t with me.”

“But it does for me though. And you as well. We might be fighting for what is right now, but the chains of memories in our hearts keep reminding us that these events happened and shaped who we are today. I guess, I just have to find out a way to do what’s right in the present while honoring the past decisions I’ve made.” Blake grabbed Miles’ hand and said,

“That’s fair. Just remember, you don’t have to do all that alone.”

“Yeah. I guess not.”  


 

“So yeah. I guess Blake just found a way to deal with the fact that she did the things she did back then while still moving forward.”

“Huh. I guess that makes sense given her background.”

“That’s why I’ve been bugging Miles and Blake so much. I think those two really can work together to overcome some of their biggest hurdles. And with a day like today after yesterday, I think it’s exactly what they need to keep their minds off things. Now let’s see if anything has change….OH MY GOSH THEY’RE HOLDING HANDS!” Nathan looked ahead to see that she was right. Blake and Miles just walking down the street towards the arcade hand in hand.

“Well, it looks like you poking fun at them so much has finally paid off.”

“Hey, you played a role in that too! Yesterday you helped drive them both nuts by just mocking the fact they were talking to each other! You learn quickly young padawan.”

“I learned from the best. Now then, shall we continue?”

“Please.”  


 

As the two of them continued down the way, they finally reached the arcade. They walked in, Miles put a few Lien cards into the change machine, and got smaller cards in return.

“You have a favorite game around here Miles?”

“I personally prefer the racing games around here, but I dabble in some fighters. You?”

“I don’t play many cabinets, but I do enjoy some of the crane games.”

“Really? All you play are rigged games?”

“Hey, some of the merch they got in there cost a ton of money on the CCT store. Better to try and spend a Lien or two on something rather than pay 30 Lien for it outright.”

“Yeesh. Never took you for a cheapskate.”

“I prefer the term chance taker.”

“Yeah, whatever. How about this, we play a round of Soaring Ninja 2 Turbo Edition, and add a few stakes to the game?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“You win, I’ll get you whatever you want out of that crane machine.”

“And if I lose?”

“You pay for every arcade game I play in here for the rest of the afternoon.”

“Oh come on, really?”

“Hey, you’re so willing to gamble your money on little trinkets, why not take a chance?”

“Fine.” Blake put a few Lien bills into the machine and selected two players.

“Who’s your main in this game Blake?”

“I prefer Roxanne, the main female character from Ninja’s of Love. You?”

“Really? Ninja’s of Love? You do know that’s a total rip off of Naruto right? Speaking of which…” Miles selected the orange ninja as his main character.

“Since when was he in the game?”

“This is the turbo edition. They added a lot of third party characters to appease the fans that thought the game was getting too big in the competitive scene.”

“Huh. I think Ruby only has the original version, so I guess that makes sense. Shall we begin?” 

“Let’s get started.”  


 

Yang and Nathan were busy playing a rhythm game off to the side of the fighting game Miles and Blake were playing, but far enough away they couldn’t be spotted. Yang played the guitar while Nathan was on drums, and two of them were doing extremely well.

“Man, this is one of the hardest songs in the game and you’re crushing it.” Yang said looking at Nathan's score

“Well that’s what happens when you train to be a drummer as a profession for the first good chunk of your youth.”

“Good point. Is it just me or do both Miles and Blake seem to be smiling a lot more than they usually do?”

“Yeah. Usually when Miles smiles, it’s more like an evil or calculating grin. I’ve never seen such warmth ever since I met him.”

“Yeah. I’ve seen it from Blake several times before, mainly around Sun and sometimes when we would do some fun stuff as a team, but not really this much.”

“Who knows? At least they’re enjoying themselves.”

“Yeah they are, but that’s not getting me enough entertainment! I want something to humiliate the two of them!”

“Is my presence not worth thy time milady?” Nathan said in a bit of a joking snooty voice.

“Careful how you use that voice Nathan. I think that’s the majority of Weiss’ friends back in Atlas.” They two of them laughed and continued to press onward in the song.  


 

Miles was in complete control. He had unleashed a ranged move that knocked Blake’s health down to the red. He moved his character in to land the finishing combo, but Blake’s character managed to dodge the initial attack and hit him instead. Miles’ character recovered and started guarding, but Blake had unleashed a giant combo of punches that caused his character to get dizzy.

“Stupid shield breaking combos!” And before Miles’ character had a chance to recover, Blake twisted the fight stick and double tapped the punch button and the game started flashing colors.

“SUPER POWER NINJA TURBO NEO ULTRA HYPER MEGA MULTI ALPHA META EXTRA COMBO! ROXANNE WINS!” Miles bashed his head on the fightstick platform.

“I win! Now then, which claw machine has something I want?” Blake started wandering around the arcade looking for a claw machine with something she didn’t have yet. Then her eyes caught sight of something and she motioned Miles over and pointed at what she saw in the machine. Miles tilted his head at an angle in confusion.

“Is that…?”

“A stuffed dango with little black slits as eyes? Yes. These things are extremely rare collectors items and I have no idea why it’s in a mid-price claw machine.”

“Isn’t that from an anime?”

“Yeah. It’s one of my favorites.”

“What a coincidence. Mine too.”

“Gee, haven’t had that happen at all today.”

“Nope. Anyways, how much is the machine?”

“It’s two Lien a play, so expect to spend about 100 Lien just simply trying to get the dango to move.” Blake said confidently.

“I’ll just pay two and be done with it.” Miles put the cards into the machine, and maneuvered the claw over the giant plushie. As the claw dropped down, teeth slipped right over the dango, clamping down on thin air. Blake started laughing out loud as Miles missed.

“Two Lien huh? Better luck next time!”

“Careful, you’re starting to sound like Yang.” As the claw started retracting back up, Miles raised one of his hands, and all of a sudden, the dango started floating along with the claw. The claw moved over to the drop zone, and then opened up the teeth. Simultaneously, Miles lowered his hand and the dango dropped into the prize zone. He pulled it out and handed the giant plushie to Blake, completely surprised.

“Did you just steal to get me a rare collectors item?”

“No, I used a cheat code. Stealing would have been if I didn’t even pay the machine for the thing. This way, I pay the system, and I beat a system that was rigged to begin with. In short, I cheated a cheater.”

“That’s confusing, hilariously cheesy, and sweet at the same time.”

“Well at least two out of three ain’t bad.”

“Let me guess, you don’t count the cheesy part.”

“I was going for the sweet part, but whatever floats your boat.”

“Well, it was nice. I mean, it just reminded me of a friend of mine from a year ago.”

“Sun Wukong? I saw the tapes of his fight during the Vytal Festival. You two were a thing? What happened to that?”

“Well apart from the legal issues of his stay in Vale, we also found we had different ideals. Especially when I ran off after the Cinder Fall incident.”

“Did he feel like you were too weak or did he not like what happened….”

“Look, I’d be more than happy to go into it with you sometime, but we don’t need to spill our entire life stories in one single day. The short version is we had a bad day and we saw things a bit differently after said day.”

“Okay. Sorry I asked.”

“It’s all right. We’ve both had our share of conversations today. Besides, it looks like the parade has passed. Want to try and head back to Beacon?”

“Actually, it’s such a nice day and I don’t know when we’re going to get one like this again. Want to swing by the book store or something?”

“I’d love that.” The two of them then walked out of the arcade, Blake hugging her new plushie tightly while Miles grabbed a plastic bag just in case they needed it. As they turned the corner to head to the bookstore, Yang and Nathan peeked out from behind the corner of the rhythm game, smiled, and gave each other a fist bump.  


 

As the sun set over the city, Miles and Blake were walking back towards the school in the courtyard. Nathan and Yang were right behind them trying their best to wait until they were back in the dorms to surprise them with all the pictures and footage they managed to get of their day together.

“Oh hey sis! How was the rest of your day?” Yang jumped and turned to see Ruby and everybody else standing right behind them.”

“Hey, don’t blow our cover just yet! We’re almost done here!”

“Um, Yang? They’re gone.” Yang looked up and realized that her sister was right. In the split second that her sister got her attention, the two of them had gotten away.

“Man, wonder if they knew the whole time.” Yang said as she stood up.

“Given the fact that we were trying to prank/get together the two most serious students in this school, it’s a possibility.” Nathan said with a smirk.

“That’s great and all Nathan,” Weiss said walking towards him with an annoyed look, “but that still doesn’t help me whatsoever!”

“What are you talking about?”

“YOU DIDN’T TELL ME THAT YOUR SISTER EATS ABOUT AS MUCH SEAFOOD AS BLAKE DOES IN A SINGLE SITTING!”

“Natls, did you convince Weiss to go to that expensive seafood joint you’ve been wanting to try for the last few months?” Natalie scratched the back of her head with a guilty look on her face as she stifled a burp. Weiss placed her palm on her forehead and sighed.

“Look, since my family is stupid rich and this will probably be a one time only event, I’ll let it slide.”

“Besides, you were going to spend a lot of money no matter where we went today Weiss.” Christy said. “That much was unavoidable.”

“Yeah. Besides, you did give us a great day today.” Evan added. “Thanks for that.”

“Yeah, I think we all really needed this.” Ren added.

“I had a good time.” Nora smiled.

“Yeah. It was a good day.” Everybody jumped to see Miles and Blake standing off to the side where nobody could see them unless they really looked hard enough. Yang and Nathan both got a bit nervous and started backing away. Blake and Miles walked right up to both of them before they could run off.

“You know, I thought something like this would have happened today Yang, but seriously? Giant glasses, were you trying to draw attention to yourself?!” Yang smiled sheepishly as Blake chewed her out.

“Normally, this is the part where I would go into a hissy fit and threaten to kill you, say you sullied my honor, etcetera." Miles said as he got in Nathan and Yang's faces.  "But in all honesty, I had a good day. So I’ll let it slide. I’m going to bed. We have team practices tomorrow morning in the battle dome. Natalie, I talked with Ruby the other day and I’ve got some new things I want to work with you on."

“Wait, where did this come from?!”

“Just do it. If we want a chance in the qualifying tournament in a few months, I need to work better with the lot of you. See you tomorrow.” Miles walked off and left everybody confused.

“Was my turnaround from snooty princess to team player this crazy fast?” Weiss asked leaning over to Ruby.

“Eh…. not as fast, but still a lot quicker than I expected.”

“It’s fine.” Blake said with a smile as she held her stuffed dango. “I think he’s really like this at heart. He’s just had too many bad things happen to him. We all have. Plus, despite all that, we still have a good future to look forward to. And today really showed me that. Thanks Yang. Although, I think you might need to find somebody else to share a dance with in a few months.”

“I figured. Good thing I’ve got a list of candidates ready to go!” Yang said with a smile.

“Who’s on your list?” Nathan asked.

“Can’t give away all my secrets big guy.”

“Fair enough.”

“Hey, does anybody want to run some food in to Jacob’s room and see how they’re all doing?” Ruby asked.

“I’ve got it Ruby.”

“Thanks Brooklyn.”  


 

“And, that’s checkmate.”

“Nicely done Jacob.”

“Thanks Jaune.”

“So what’s that make it now, 23 wins for you and 12 for me?”

“I think so. I must admit, I’m impressed by your tactical skills.”

“He does try.” Pyrrha smiled as she gave Jaune a hug.

“Got any plans for the qualifying rounds of the tournament?” Jacob asked Jaune.

“At this point, we qualified last year, so why not go for it again this year? What’s your team strategy?”

“I was hoping we could figure that out together.”

“That’s a smart way of going about it." Pyrrha said.  "That’s what Jaune had us do last year and it worked wonders.”

“In that case, would you be willing to work with us tomorrow? We’ve got the battle dome for practice during the lunch period.”

“I’m in."


	13. Episode 1: Chapter 9: Scattered Pieces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 9 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

Ruby twirled her scythe in defense of the onslaught of the oncoming attacks. Miles leapt in from the side and started trading blows with his swords while Natalie swung around and got Ruby caught in the curve of one half of her weapon.

“Good job Natalie” Ruby smiled. “Visualize, then attack.” As she said this, she got Crescent Rose out of the reach of Miles’ swords and launched herself skyward away from Natalie’s weapon. As she landed, Miles and Natalie regrouped.

“Natalie, let’s try formation C this time.”

“Didn’t we already practice that one?”

“No, that was formation SEA.”

“You know, it’s technically MY job to come up with the team attack names!”

“And I told you, until we figure out which attacks work best, we have to do what we can until we come up with official team names! I mean, do you even have any ideas for team attacks?”

“I was thinking formation C could be Sailing Sword?”

“What? I was thinking something like Checkmate.”

“I already gave that one to Weiss and Blake plagiarist!” Ruby yelled as she jumped forward attacking by using her scythe like a giant spinning blade. Miles and Natalie jumped backwards in opposite directions, getting ready for the red hooded girl to make her next move. But all of a sudden, a buzzer went off and the doors opened up. In walked Team several new teams, including Team JCTB and Team JNPR.

“I guess we’ve run out of time for today. Might as well get some lunch.” Miles put his swords away and started heading for the exit. The other members of Team RWBY and NEMN started making their way down from the stands as they had worked together earlier in the hour but decided to take a break while Ruby helped the two polar opposites work on their two-man strategies. As they walked past team JCTB, Christy and Evan stopped and started chatting it up while the others continued walking.

“Yeesh. Those two are as lovey dovey as Miles and Blake” Nathan joked.

“Yeah, the only difference is they aren’t ashamed to admit it!” Yang and Nathan continued to laugh while everybody just simply groaned. All of a sudden, Miles had one of his swords in pistol form and pointed it right at Yang’s head.

“Go on, give me some more reasons blondie. I’d love to see what would happen with your aura in contrast to Ty’s.”

“Party pooper. No cake for you.” Miles sighed realizing he wasn’t going to get Yang to fold and put his weapon away.

“Yeah. Besides, there is no cake on the menu today. It’s SEAFOOD DAY!” Natalie exclaimed excitedly.

“I thought that was tomorrow?” Blake questioned.

“Did you change your calendar back from before when Yang switched it around to stage our little “mishap” with the parade Blake?”

“Ah, that makes sense now. Well then, I’m going to enjoy myself.”

“I bet I could eat ten plates easily!” Natalie pumped her fist in the air in victory as she said this.

“Oh please. I’ve totally eaten more than that.”

“Is that a challenge miss Belladonna?”

“I daresay it is! Most plates finished wins?”

“Challenge accepted!”

“Rats!” Everybody turned to see Ruby kicking the dirt. “I mean…yay! Food rivalry!” Everybody shrugged and just continued walking towards the cafeteria, while Ruby pulled out a pie she had wrapped in foil.

“Soon you wonderful piece of comedy, soon.”  


 

Christy continued to spar with Ren, both trying to gain the upper hand in close quarters combat. Christy was holding her own, but it was clear that Ren was controlling the pace. As time continued to move forward, Ren did a quick spinning maneuver, used his blasters to knock her off balance, then pinned her down to the ground with one swift move.

“Dang it!” Christy slammed her fist on the ground with anger.

“Don’t worry about it too much." Ren said offering her a hand up.  "You are definitely improving. I think once the qualification tournament rolls around, you four will be easily making it into the qualified four.”

“Yeah, but that’s all people keep telling me!” Christy said as she accepted Ren’s hand up. “You’re doing good, you’re getting better, like I can never reach a pinnacle at the top ever in my lifetime! Why can’t I achieve anything more than just learning?!”

“Look, we’re always learning. No point in trying to put ourselves on a higher pedestal too early.” Ty walked over from his match with Nora, to which she was extremely annoyed.

“Don’t walk away from me big guy!” Nora quickly launched herself towards Ty in retaliation. “SMASH!” As her hammer made contact with Ty’s head, she just simply floated there as Ty gave her a look of annoyance, leading Nora to plummet a few short feet to the ground.

“My point is Ty, is that no matter what I do, or who I defeat, people are never going to give me any credit other than ‘you’re getting stronger’. I want to be more than that. I want people to accept me as a warrior, not some constantly struggling student!” Christy said, getting more and more ticked off.

“But, you literally just described half your job title. We are still students, and we are still learning. Heck, even when we graduate, we’ll still be learning.”

“Ty’s right.” Jacob walked over from his sparring match with Pyrrha and Jaune. “It’s natural for us as human beings to constantly have to adapt and learn new skills in order to survive.”

“Why did you have to make it so preachy and boring Jacob?” Brooklyn asked as she jumped down from the stands. “I mean, really, we have to teach Christy the importance of how to be willing to not always be the best, and to be quite frank, I’m preaching to the choir here.”

“Hey look Brooklyn, I’ve always been weak.” Christy started getting defensive walking straight towards Brooklyn. “All my life, I’ve been told to give up and never pursue anything other than being ordinary. I’ve had to push myself past the limits of my own body so that I could be where I am today.”

“Then given that, shouldn’t you be taking compliments of improvement with some optimism?!” Christy stopped advancing towards Brooklyn as soon as she said this, while Brooklyn sat down cross-legged. “Look, I’m not like all of you. At least, in a mental state of being. I don’t have a tragic backstory, I don’t have overbearing parents, I don’t have a dead family member to drive me. I’m just a normal person who wants to do good in the world, and just simply pushes forward no matter what.”

“And I can respect that.” Jacob sat down next to her. “The truth is though, given our differences, we now need to find a way that not only makes everybody happy, but also makes sure that we can execute what we need to get done quickly and effectively without anybody getting hurt.”

“I agree with the latter of that portion.” Ty said as he placed his sword on the ground and sat down as well. “We do need to figure out how we are going to operate as a team when in battle. But we can’t make everybody happy. We have to do what is best for the team and that means we might have to make some sacrifices.”

“What kind of sacrifices are you suggesting we make?” Christy asked as she sat down as well.

“Uh, what should we do then?” Nora asked in confusion as Team JCTB just simply sat down.

“Let’s get back to training.” Jaune said. “We know what we need to get done, so let’s let them do that as well.” With that, Team JNPR headed off to the open practice floor of the dome and resumed their training.

“Look, all I’m saying Christy is that despite the fact you want to be the big hero charging in on the front lines to save the day, that may not be your biggest strength.” Ty said leaning forward.

“Excuse me?! Did you miss the part where I helped you and Brooklyn with defeating a small army of White Fang members?!”

“Yes, we did do that, when we had surprise on our side. If they had time to prepare, most likely it would have been me or Brooklyn saving you from yet another onslaught of something you couldn’t handle.”

“I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF!”

“Nobody is doubting that Christy” Jacob said as he put his hand up to try and calm her down. “Each and every one of us on this team could very well take care of ourselves in certain situations, but if our weaknesses appear before us, then alone, we fall. But together, we can make up the difference.”

“As much as I hate it when you get preachy, you’re right.” Brooklyn stood up and morphed her weapon into shield form. “The thing that we need to figure out is who works best where and how. For me and Ty, that’s easy. We both have a Semblance that allows us to charge headlong into the front lines and barrel through our enemies. Jacob as well, is very easy to pinpoint. He is somebody who can see the entire field of battle and create a plan for everybody. He is also unparalleled in close quarters combat, so he could take down a few fighters at a time.”

“What does that leave me?” Christy asked, clenching her fists.

“Well, given what I noticed last week, I think you should be more of a stealth type of fighter.” Brooklyn said picking up one of Christy's axes.

“Excuse me?”

“Look, they may not be the most glamorous fighters, but they do get the job done rather efficiently. Plus, when we had the element of surprise on our side, once we launched into action, then we were unstoppable. We were tearing people apart left and right. I think that’s the direction this team needs to go.”

“I’m with Brooklyn on this one” Jacob said confidently. “Christy has amazing potential, but like all of us, some glaring weaknesses.”

“Except me.” Ty said with a grin.

“Yeah, do you even have a weakness Ty?” Jacob asked.

“Only that after a few solid minutes of taking blows, my aura starts working like normal and I won’t be able to use my absolute defense until my aura is completely recharged.”

“Huh. Good to know. Anyways, I think what needs to be done is that we need to be a combination of distraction and surprise tactics. Two of the four members of our team are able to create a large enough distraction while I could be in the limelight taking on stragglers while Christy could be taking pot shots from the shadows luring them into a trap she could easily destroy them in.”

“That’s great and all brainiac, but how do you think we could pull this off in an actual battle?” Christy asked taking her axe back from Brooklyn.

“A good question Christy, and one that can be answered by a quick bit of training and a mock battle. I think Cardin from Team CRDL has been trying to coax people into fighting his team for the past bit of time. So I think they’ll be perfect punching bags.”

“Honestly, I’ve wanted to beat that guy up ever since I laid eyes on him.”

“Yeah, how did he even get past the first round of the Vytal Festival last year?” Brooklyn asked with a look of confusion on her face.

“Easy Brooklyn. He got a bunch of chumps from Heaven to fight. I saw the tapes, and they had it easy. Once his team got to the doubles round though, they were easily defeated.” Ty said as he stood up and picked up his sword.

“Well that makes things a bit easier to comprehend. Shall we give this new teamwork plan a whirl?” Brooklyn asked.

“I’m down.” Ty said loading his weapon.

“I guess I’ll give stealth a try.” Christy said as she stood up.

“All right then. I’ll talk to Professor Goodwitch and try to set up the biomes for the match.” As Jacob turned to go, Brooklyn yelled out,

“Wait, shouldn’t we practice first Jacob?” 

“Oh yeah, that’s probably an important piece to all of this isn’t it?”  


 

As Team CRDL got ready for the match, the randomizer for the biomes started spinning. On Team CRDL’s side was the forest biome, while on the side of Team JCTB was the ice biome. Both teams got into ready positions, with Team CRDL all lined up, and Team JCTB in a wedge formation, Ty and Brooklyn on point with Christy and Brooklyn in the back.

“3, 2, 1, BEGIN!” As the screens flashed to signify the start of the match, Ty and Brooklyn rushed forward, Ty with his weapon in sword form while Brooklyn had her weapon in shield form to block the incoming blasts from Russel’s dagger pistols. Meanwhile, Jacob and Christy jumped backwards into the forest, causing Dove and Sky to chase after them. Ty and Brooklyn reached Cardin and Russel, with Brooklyn quickly beginning to spar with Russel, easily dealing with his weak stance and poor form. Ty was dueling with Cardin, trading blows left and right. But the big thing was that despite Cardin being able to land blows that would destroy the aura of his opponents, Ty just took it as if Cardin had tapped him on the shoulder with a feather. He simply swung his sword around hitting Cardin several times before the buzzer sounded signifying that his aura level was depleted.

“Well that was easy.”

“Ugh…. lucky shot…” Cardin groaned as he collapsed to the ground unconscious. Ty then looked to make his way over to Brooklyn and Russel, but noticed that she was doing fine enough on her own. Russel was constantly backing up as Brooklyn moved forward on the offensive constantly controlling the pace of the fight. So seeing that things were under control, Ty rushed off to help deal with Dove and Sky in the forest. Meanwhile, Jacob was dueling the two of the other members of Team CRDL rather easily. He hadn’t entered his time manipulation state yet, knowing that it would only be needed if the situation demanded it. Christy had jumped into the trees and was waiting for Jacob’s signal to take them out. Dove tried to knock Jacob off-balance with a sword strike to the leg, but he ended up missing horribly giving Jacob a wide-open stab right into his chest, knocking his aura down to 8%. Having subdued his opponent, Jacob quickly struck the ground with a dagger causing a giant cloud of fog to appear on the battlefield. Sky was completely blind, so he tried twirling his weapon like a helicopter blade to clear it away, but before he could finish, Christy jumped straight at him catching him off guard, and at the same time, disarming him. She quickly used her axes to deal several blows to the body depleting his aura and defeating him. The buzzer sounded and the biomes retracted back into the floor, leaving an excited Team JCTB and a completely defeated Team CRDL in the center ring.

“That worked so much better than I thought it would!” Christy said with excitement.

“Yeah, makes you realize how much we can get done once we figure out how to work together.” Ty said with a smile.

“A bit clichéd for my taste Ty, but nonetheless, you’re not wrong.”

“I feel like if we continue like this, we could be the champion team at the end of the Vytal Festival Re-Issue in a few months.” Jacob said with some certainty.  The all high-fived each other, then started leaving the arena. The match was the last thing that was allowed to happen before the students had to trade with the next group. Team JNPR walked down from the stands and met up with the others.

“Great job guys! You really got that teamwork down to a science!” Jaune said with enthusiasm.

“Yeah, you guys kicked butt out there!” Nora said punching Ty in the shoulder.

“Thanks everybody.” Jacob smiled. “But right now, I’m in desperate need of some re-fueling. Maybe there’s a chance the others are still at lunch?”

“It’s possible. But probably not. I bet they finished and are headed this direction now just to see how we did.” Pyrrha said as she checked the time on her scroll.

“Pyrrha’s definitely right on this one." Jaune said as he turned to leave.  "Besides, I bet Blake has eaten all the fish already.”

“Well it’s better than when Nora eats all the syrup.”

“Ren’s not wrong…” Everybody laughed at this and made their way to the cafeteria.  
  


 

“EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT!” The chants continued as Blake and Natalie got started on another platter of food. As soon as the plates hit the table, the two of them immediately started going to town. Both JCTB and JNPR walked in to basically witness both Blake and Natalie eating food in a style similar to that of Garfield. They immediately started working their way through the crowds to where the rest of their friends were.

“Miles, what the heck is going on?” Ty asked walking up next to him.

“Oh, hey Ty. Well, basically, these two ladies got in a heated debate as to who could eat the most seafood, so they started going at it, but they’ve been going at it for so long I think they’re on their 20th plate now.”

“Crying out loud. Any signs of them slowing down?”

“No, not really. I’d strongly suggest getting some food now, because there’s no guarantee that there will be any left as these two continue.”

“All right. Be back in a minute.”  


 

“Ready to give up Blake?”

“Please. I’m just now barely beginning to feel like any food has entered my stomach. I could go for another 20 plates and THEN I might feel like I’ve had a small snack.”

“Them’s fightin words!” With that said, Natlaie started digging into the plate of shrimp. As she took her first bite however, she felt like something was wrong in her stomach. She tried to shake it off, but it kept growing more and more obvious. She was getting full. As she attempted to finish off the plate, she felt like she was going to explode and pushed the plate away. Meanwhile Blake finished off the plate in record time and held her arms high in victory.

“All too easy.”

“Yay, great. We had a random eating competition, can we leave now?” Miles said with an annoyed tone, feeling glad this was over and done with.

“Calm down Miles” said Weiss. “The others still have their lunch to eat, why not join them for a while?”

“Fine. I guess I’ll go back for seconds or something.”

“You do that. And Ruby, I see that pie, and I know what you’re planning!”

“You gonna stop me Weiss?”

“Yes. Yes I am.”

“Aw, you’re no fun.”


	14. Episode 1: Chapter 10: Chains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 10 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

“GO! GO! GO! GO!” Beanie continued to bark out the command as every team on the airship started diving down. There had been an anonymous tip that was secretly from Blake that a large White Fang base was located inside the city. As soon as Professor Ozpin got word of it, he immediately tasked as many teams as he could to take the base down. Team JCTB was the first out the side, and Ty was quick to use his bazooka to blast a hole in the ceiling of the building. The debris crashed down and revealed only a few White Fang members on that floor. As soon as they landed, Brooklyn and Christy rushed forward taking down the nearby guards while Jacob quickly activated his time manipulation state to quickly place a slew of daggers to create an even bigger hole in the ceiling for the rest of the teams to enter through. Everybody else landed and quickly started heading for each of the different doors out of the room they were currently in. As soon as Beanie landed, he started barking out orders.

“All right, this isn’t a drill, so stick to the plan! All upperclassmen and defensive types take the lead, and then each team will break off into different rooms as we go on. If our intel is right, we should be able to reach the warehouse portion of this building in about 100 meters from this room. Everybody good? Then get moving!” As soon as he said this, Team JCTB along with Team CFVY, Team RWBY and others, charged through the door on the right. Meanwhile, Team JNPR took charge out the door on the left with Team NEMN and others. As the right door team made their way down the hallway, they saw a few grunt soldiers pop out of certain doors. Brooklyn didn’t slow her run holding her shield high defending everybody else behind her as they moved forward. She quickly started manifesting her aura into a type of aura burn on her body, even though it wasn’t really her strong suit. She used this short burst to barrel right through the troops in the hallway. On the other end, Jaune and Pyrrha lead the charge with their own shields up, as some of the students with better-ranged weapons started taking pot shots at the enemy. As they continued down the hallway, different teams would peel off into different rooms and hallways to deal with other White Fang members. The group on the right side passed a giant corridor that was filled with White Fang members rushing towards them hoping to get them with a strong flank, but Coco quickly morphed her handbag into gatling gun form and started tearing up the hallway and all the troops in it. Meanwhile, the team on the left reached the main warehouse portion of the building on the higher floors. While Team JNPR split off to take care of the members on the upper floor, most of the other teams including Team NEMN jumped down to the main floor and began engaging the enemy. Beanie as well had joined them and he started using his whistle to control several different flows of water out of his backpack to knock White Fang troops and the mech suits off balance. Evan jumped down into the remains and began subduing several different lieutenants of the White Fang with relative ease. It was clear that despite having heard them come in, they weren’t ready for this level of an assault.

“Nathan! I’ve got eyes on Taurus!” Miles yelled over to his teammate as he rushed forward.

“HE’S MINE!” Nathan yelled as he threw one of his billy clubs towards a group of enemy soldiers. As Nathan approached Adam, the club he threw ricocheted off a few more soldiers and a mech before returning to his hand to begin clashing with Adam.

“Ugh, you again?” Adam said with clear annoyance. Meanwhile, Miles was rushing towards Adam to help Nathan when a strange man with silver hair in a flowing red cloak leapt down in front of him.

“I take it you’re the guy who caused Jacob’s most recent condition?”

“Who’s Jacob? I’ve been busy of late.” He then whipped his arm around and revealed a long chain with a large hook on the end that almost stabbed Miles right in the gut, but he managed to see it in time to block it and knock the chain back at his opponent. As soon as the chain returned to him, he got into a battle stance and prepared to go toe to toe with the cloaked student.

“You do look familiar, I won’t lie. If only I had time to check.”

“Less talking more fighting dude.” Miles said in annoyance as he charged towards the man in the red coat. The two of them clashed, Miles trying hard to work past his opponent to help Nathan with Adam, but was unsuccessful.

“Yes, I do remember you. You were the child who forced Adam’s hand in the mountain village.” Miles paused in shock as he heard him say this. This pause gave his opponent the chance to slice him right across the chest, sending him backwards to the ground. Miles was struggling to get up, giving his opponent plenty of time to pin him to the ground with his boot. 

“How do you know all this?”

“Because I was there fool. Oh, that’s right. You don’t remember.” As he said this, a glowing orb appeared in his hand with an image in the center. He held it down to Miles’ face to give him a better look, and it was Nathan, himself, Adam, and the man in the red coat all standing together in the middle of the burning town of Aequo.

“Don’t want to give too much away just yet. This is just a sample.”  


 

Weiss sliced past some of the remaining guards and noticed their corridor just ended up as a dead end.

“Yang!” The blonde looked away from pummeling a random soldier, and noticed Weiss’ predicament. Quickly she threw the now unconscious soldier into a crowd of oncoming soldiers and rushed towards the wall screaming her head off and punched right through it with ease. With that done, they started charging forward into the warehouse portion of the building, with Weiss sending large chunks of ice towards some of the mech suits giving students trouble. Right behind her was Brooklyn as well as Ruby, who all quickly jumped down to the lower floor. As soon as they landed, they noticed a guy in a red coat standing over Miles with something glowing in his hand.

“That’s him!” Brooklyn yelled. “That’s the guy who attacked Jacob!” With little hesitation, Brooklyn morphed her weapon into rifle form and took a shot at him, which he didn’t react to in time and took square in the chest. What happened next was hard for anybody to understand. As soon as the shot hit her target, he dropped the glowing orb he had in his hand, but also two other orbs fell out of his body. The orb he dropped landed right onto Miles and dissolved into his body. The other two orbs started floating in mid-air, then started flying straight towards Nathan and Brooklyn. As the orb got closer to her, the man in the red coat quickly caught it with his hook.

“That’s one memory I can’t allow losing hold of just yet. As for the other one, well, I think things are about to become interesting.” Brooklyn looked over at Nathan and saw he had collapsed to the ground clutching his head in pain. Adam saw this chance and raised his sword to stab him in the back, but as he plunged his sword down, the man in the red coat knocked it off course with his hook, confusing Adam.

“We shall retreat for now. I have a feeling that we will find a use for them in time.”

“But Lord Memoriare, if they know of the Order’s existence…”

“Then we shall kill them both. Or all of them. But not now. Not while they have the advantage. Collect what we need and go. I’ll hold them off so we aren’t followed.” Adam, clearly upset, nodded his head and rushed off towards the nearby fleet of airships. Miles was slow to get up as he was clasping his head in pain, so Weiss attempted to rush after Adam, but the man in red halted her attempts to reach him and began sparring with her.

“The daughter of the eldest Schnee. Interesting.”

“We’re ready Lord Memoriare.”

“Well then, I best take my leave. Oh, and have fun with your “friends”.” With that said, Memoriare jumped backwards towards the airships and landed right on the one that was taking off. Weiss was about to pursue, but then Leo jumped right in front of her.

“You aren’t getting those two Ice Queen.”

“WHY DOES EVERYBODY….OH FORGET IT!” Weiss quickly spun around and created an ice prison for Leo, freezing everything except his head.

“Okay, why did I stand still and let her do this again?”  


 

As everybody started arresting and rounding up the White Fang troops that weren’t awake or dead. Christy started tending to Miles’ injuries, but nothing seemed to change.

“It’s weird, it’s just like what happened to Jacob a few weeks ago. I don’t get it what happened?” Miles was slow to get up, but did so successfully. Christy then started moving on to Nathan. Blake and Natalie made their way over to Miles with some pace while Yang ran over to Nathan.

“You doing okay Miles?”

“Natalie….your brother……”

“He’s fine Miles. Christy is tending to him now.”

“No…. the orbs…. memories…I think he knows…” Natalie and Blake looked at each other then over to Nathan. Christy finished tending to his wounds, and Nathan slowly got up, with a fire in his eyes. He looked over at Miles with an anger that even made Yang take a step back from where Nathan was standing.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH” Nathan screamed at the top of his lungs and launched himself towards Miles. Blake and Natalie didn’t react in time, so it fell on Miles to block the incoming attack from his teammate.

“Nathan, stop!”

“YOU KILLED THEM! YOU KILLED HER!”

“Nathan, calm down! I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“OH, YOU DON’T KNOW HUH?! WELL CLEARLY YOU DIDN’T KNOW ANYTHING SINCE YOU KILLED EVERYONE BACK IN AEQUO!”

“Nathan, what are you talking about?”

“I REMEMBER IT NOW! YOU WERE THE ONE THAT ATTACKED ADAM AND PROVOKED HIM TO KILL EVERYBODY! YOU GOT EVERYBODY KILLED, SO I’M GOING TO AVENGE THEM!” Nathan continued to try and hit Miles, but Miles constantly kept blocking the attacks. But it wasn’t enough, as Nathan broke through his defenses and sent him flying into the wall. Nathan rushed in to continue his attack, but then Natalie jumped in the way.

“Nathan stop! This isn’t you!”

“Get out of my way Natalie!”

“He’s our teammate!”

“HE’S A MURDERER!”

“He didn’t kill anybody! He was just trying to help!”

“He killed our family! Our friends! He killed Ember!”

“NO HE DIDN’T! Nathan, he tried to SAVE all of them!”

“A lot of good that did!”

“Nathan, this isn’t going to accomplish anything! This isn’t going to avenge mom or dad or even Matthew! Do you really think Ember would want you to do this?!”

“Shut up Natalie.”

“Our parents raised us smarter than this! Ember trained you better than this! She wouldn’t want you to give in to your hatred like this!”

“YOU DIDN’T LOVE HER LIKE I DID!” Nathan lunged forward and started attacking his sister, scaring Natalie into almost firing a round right in his face. She kept defending his attacks, but never attacked back.

“NATHAN!” Both Nathan and Natalie looked over to see Miles standing up, clearly wounded. “IT’S ME YOU WANT! SO HAVE AT IT!” As soon as he said this, he dropped both his swords to the ground, and as soon as they did so, Nathan charged forward screaming at the top of his lungs. Natalie tried to chase after him, but Miles put his hand up telling her to stop just as Nathan landed the first blow right to his face. Miles fell back down to the ground after that hit, and skidded up against another wall. Nathan then rushed towards him, continuing to beat him senseless. It was clear that Miles’ aura was depleted, because a lot of Nathan’s blows were starting to draw blood.

“I DON’T CARE IF YOU DIDN’T PHYSICALLY KILL THEM, YOU’RE JUST AS RESPONSIBLE FOR EMBER’S DEATH AS ADAM IS!”

“You…. think I don’t…know that?” Miles said as Nathan landed another blow across his face. “I lost people too that day. My mom, my dad, my younger brother, I lost everything and everybody I knew and loved in one single day, all because I thought I could actually be the hero. Not a day goes by when I don’t wake up and realize they are all dead because of me. So whale away big guy. I don’t even care anymore. I always knew… this would catch up with me someday.” Nathan raised his club high and hit Miles hard enough that his temple started bleeding. As he raised his other club for another hit, Blake jumped right in front of Miles.

“Stand aside.” Nathan said, struggling to hold back his rage.

“You’ve made your point Nathan. Are you really willing to kill him?”

“He killed everybody in Aequo. This is justice.”

“NO! This is revenge! And not even directed at the right target!”

“HE LET ADAM KILL EVERYBODY!”

“YOU AREN’T PERFECT EITHER HOTHEAD!” Nathan turned around to see Yang walking towards him, and also stood in front of Miles. “You got yourself captured as well, and even if Miles hadn’t been there, what do you think was going to happen to them regardless?”

“I COULD HAVE SAVED THEM! I COULD HAVE SAVED ALL OF THEM!”

“But you might not have. Nobody is perfect, and as far as I know, they had complete control of the town, and if you had done what Miles tried to do, all that blood might have been on your hands.”

“Yeah, great. Hindsight is 20/20. Plenty of what if scenarios. That doesn’t change the fact that he caused the death of almost EVERYBODY I LOVED!”

“Nathan, I know you want to avenge your family, but by killing your own teammate? That just helps Adam win even more.”

“And what do you suggest then? I just live with the fact that my teammate is somebody who caused the deaths of all my friends and family?!”

“You can choose to see it like that, even though it’s not the truth.” Evan said as he stood in front of Miles as well. “But if you continue to hold that belief in your heart, then the best thing you could do to remove that pain is forgive him.” As Evan was saying this, everybody else started standing in front of Miles, forming a wall, with Natalie being the last to stand in front of him.

“Nathan, Ember saved my life. Don’t dishonor her memory by doing this. Miles isn’t our enemy. He’s our teammate. I even think he’s our friend.” Nathan still held his club high, as if he was just waiting to strike. Everybody continued to shield Miles, but then he got up and worked his way to the front of the crowd and right within striking distance of Nathan’s club.

“Nathan, I don’t expect you to forgive me. But know that I am sorry for everything that’s happened. Not a day goes by where I wish I could just be back in Aequo with delusional dreams of being a honorable warrior.” Nathan looked square in Miles’ eyes, not sure how to react. Then, all of a sudden, he just turned and started running faster than even Ruby could.

“Nathan!” Natalie called out, but it was too late. Her brother was gone. Miles then started stumbling towards everybody.

“All right then, I think I’m going to pass out now….”  


 

Miles woke up back in his room, with Christy healing his wounds. He tried to get up, but there was a sharp pain in his head.

“Keep resting. Nathan did a number on you." Christy said as she continued to heal Miles.  "It’s taken almost all the aura I have to just stop your bleeding.” Miles groaned and tried his best to relax while looking around to see who was all there. Blake was siting right next to him, Natalie was sitting at her desk, and Jacob was chilling by the door.

“Where’s everybody else?”

“They went to report what happened to Professor Ozpin. Also, given what happened between you and Nathan, they are also trying to convince both Ozpin and Goodwitch that Nathan shouldn’t be expelled once he gets back.”

“Wait, he didn’t come back here?”

“No.” Natalie said as she got up. “I have no idea where he might have gone.”

“After he beat you up and you passed out, nobody tried to follow him since we all assumed that he would just come right back here." Christy said as she wiped her brow.  "But I guess that’s not the case.” Blake continued to say nothing, but instead grasped Miles’ hand.

“Blake, I’m injured, not dead.”

“I know, but I’m tired of seeing people I care about getting hurt because of somebody from my past.”

“That’s not the big issue right now. It’s clear that Nathan now knows, and we should let everybody in on what we have discussed. But first, we need to find him. Natalie, has Nathan ever done something similar to this before?”

“No, not really. He’s never run off like this before. He’s been emotional, but never to the point where he would run away.”

“When he was emotional, where were you at the time?”

“I think we were on the road out of Aequo. We had just fought a group of White Fang members that Nathan recognized from the attack. We went to bed that night, Nathan still fuming, but he was still there the next morning.”

“Ah. I think I know where he went now.”

“Where?”

“He went back to Aequo.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“He might go there to talk to the dead to console himself. I mean, I don’t know. He and I have walked very different paths, so I have no idea how he coped with that whole situation.”

“I’m not sure how he did either. I’m only all right because I’ve suppressed most of those memories a long time ago.”

“It helped that he had you, and you him. I didn’t have anybody until I stumbled across Ty. And even to some extent, you guys.” As he said this, everybody else walked into the room.

“How ya feeling chucklehead?” Ty said with a weak smile.

“About as good as I can be Dante.”

“Seriously Ty, where did you even get the nickname Dante?” Natalie asked.

“I got it from my dad, cut me some slack.”

“Anyways, Professor Ozpin is willing to let Nathan back into the school, but we have to bring him back.”

“Good to know Pyrrha. And I think we know where to look.”

“So when are we leaving?” Jacob asked.

“As soon as Christy gets me up and running and she has some time to rest to regain her aura.”

“I’m done. Just give me something to eat and I’ll be ready to go in 15 minutes.”

“All right then. Let’s go get that numbskull back.”  


 

The moon was completely full, he had been running all day, but Nathan didn’t even feel tired. He just kept running. He saw the twin mountains in the distance and continued forward. He reached the outskirts of the town in about two minutes. He was where his old house used to stand in even less time. The entire town was nothing but burnt rubble and slight traces of ash from the fires that hadn’t blown away in the wind. As soon as he reached his goal, only then did he fall to his knees in exhaustion.

“Ember…..I don’t know what to do anymore. I finally found the guy who started the chain reaction that killed everybody, but nobody would let me have my justice! Miles killed you! He made the choice to try and save everybody, but he didn’t think of the consequences! He didn’t think to try and be smarter! Be safer! Why did he kill everybody? Why did he kill you?” Nathan continued to sit there, not moving an inch as the wind howled through the night.  
“I’m sorry Ember. I just…when that memory came back, I didn’t know how to feel about it. I mean, this guy is my teammate. Sure he attacked my sister, but he has come a long way from there. He’s actually got Natls comfortable enough to leave her hood off when hanging out and training with him. I don’t get it. We worked so hard to find the person responsible, and when we do find one of the two responsible, Natalie wants to protect him. I don’t get it. I just wish you were here right now. I miss you so much. I lost my blood family, and you; you were like a second mother to me. I can’t do this alone. I need guidance. I need answers. Please Ember. You always…. you always knew how to help me.” Nathan at this point started crying. He just sat there and wept, not caring about anything else in the world.  


 

“Let’s get moving. With some luck, we should be able to reach Aequo about two hours before first light.” Natalie directed everybody aboard the airship, as her team, Team JCTB, JNPR, and RWBY joined them as well.

“We need to take off now." Miles said as he grabbed a ceiling strap to keep himself up.  "I don’t want to find a giant Grimm horde right on top of Nathan once we get there.”

“What makes you so sure there might be Grimm Miles?”

“For starters, that town has been abandoned for seven years now. It’s a perfect place for Grimm to fester overtime. Secondly, Nathan is completely driven by emotions right now, and I can guarantee all of them are negative. So if we want to save your brother, I suggest we start moving now. It’s an hour long flight, so anybody who needs sleep I suggest you get it now. We might have a long battle on our hands.” With that said, Ruby, Nora, Christy, and Natalie all grabbed a seat in order to catch some rest before the big battle. But as Natalie drifted off to sleep, she couldn’t help but picture everything before the tragedy all those years ago.  


 

As the moon continued to shine, Nathan didn’t move one inch from where he was sitting. Atop the mountain, a Nevermore was perched there, not making a single sound. Then, all of a sudden, Nathan let out a cry of pain, and the Nevermore cried out as well. And all of a sudden, a giant horde of Griffons flew over the mountain’s peak, and started diving towards Nathan. He just simply looked up, saw them coming, and closed his eyes.

“I will not let you desecrate her memory.”


	15. Episode 1: Chapter 11: Flames

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 11 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

Natalie could hear nothing but chaos as she closed her eyes as she tried to get a quick nap alongside Ruby, Nora and Christy. There was a lot of noise as there was a bit of turbulence as soon as the airship began travelling outside the borders of Vale. There was also this flashing red light that was flashing right in front of where Natalie was sitting, and was doing so in a slow rhythm.

“Hey, Natalie, you doing okay? Natalie?”  


 

“Natalie!” Natalie looked up and saw that she had fallen off the side of the field. A few of her friends were looking over the side of the hill to make sure she was all right.

“I’m okay. Just took a bad tumble, that’s all.” She quickly got back up and grabbed the ball that had rolled right next to her. As she got back onto the field, she handed it to another kid on the other team. That kid then threw the ball back into play and the game resumed. They kicked the ball around some more until somebody scored a goal for the other team. All the kids for that team started cheering while the other team hung their heads. Natalie just simply stomped her feet on the ground.

“Dang it!”

“Natalie!” Everybody looked up to where the new voice came from. As Natalie looked up, she recognized the new person immediately.

“Ember!”

“Your mom sent me to come get you. It’s almost time for dinner.” Natalie immediately started grinning from ear to ear and started running to where Ember was standing.

“Wait Natalie! What about the game?” one of the kids yelled from the field.

“Get Sapphire to take my place. I’ve got to go now. See you guys tomorrow!” With that said, Natalie quickly joined the cat Faunus. The two of them shared a hug and started walking away from the fields. The sun was starting to set, and was creating a huge shadow from the western mountains.

“So, why did you come and get me Ember? What’s my mom doing?”

“Well, she’s getting dinner ready because your dad went to go pick up your brother from the bus stop and I’m actually going to be joining you all tonight!”

“Yay!” Natalie said as she gave Ember a hug. “I always love it when you hang out with us!” Ember smiled, and returned her hug.

“I do too. Now let’s get back home and have a fun evening!”

“Yeah!”  


 

As they all sat around the dinner table, everybody was having a good time. The food was still warm fresh off the stove, and everything was set on the table with great care. As soon as everybody sat down, they all began eating. Natalie quickly started wolfing down her food while her father tried to keep her younger brother Matthew from making a mess with his own food. Ember and Natalie’s mother simply smiled and enjoyed themselves. Everybody seemed to be happy, but then Natalie looked over and noticed Nathan was just simply fiddling with his food, not taking any bites.

“Something wrong Nathan? You’ve hardly touched your food.”

“Yeah, I’m fine mom. It’s just, I’m not that hungry.”

“But you love pasta night! Plus, it’s been almost half a year since you’ve been home! I figured a good home cooked meal would be good for you!”

“Yeah, it’s great. Look, I have something I need to talk to you guys about after dinner.” As soon as Nathan said this, both her mom and her dad gave each other concerned looks.

“Okay Nathan. Let’s just get your sister and brother to bed and then we can talk about what it is you’ve got on your mind.” After that little incident, not much else was said during the rest of the dinner.  


 

As Natalie tried to fall asleep, she heard some yelling from downstairs. She sat up and realized that all the yelling hadn’t waked Matthew up, so she got up and snuck down the stairs. As she got down to the first floor, she remained behind the corner, but peeked out into the living room to see what was going on. Her father was sitting on the couch across from Nathan, and standing over to the side was Ember. Meanwhile, her mother was pacing about in the center of the room in a fury.

“…you can’t just give up that easily Nathan!”

“But I’m not good at it! I hate fighting! I don’t want to do this anymore!”

“Nathan, you have potential! You have what it takes to be a great Huntsman, but it won’t come to you naturally and immediately! It comes with training and discipline and…”

“WILL YOU SHUT UP MOM? I’m not cut out to be a Huntsman! I want to go with Ember and the Violet Troupe!”

“Nathan, this isn’t what your mother and I agreed on with you." Nathan's father said putting down his tea cup.  "We said you would finish a year at combat school BEFORE we could consider letting you join the Violet Troupe. Besides, you’re only nine right now, and you’ll be ten before you finish this next semester. You won’t even be a legal adult until you reach 15 anyways. Don’t you think you should take some time to think this over? You still have your whole life ahead of you.”

“Dad, seriously, why are you taking her side? Weren’t you the one who told me that I should do whatever makes me feel happy? Well I’m not happy at combat school. Heck, my grades aren’t even that good. Just look at my report card!” Nathan then slapped a piece of paper onto the coffee table, which his mother picked up and looked over.

“Nathan, these grades are fine. They can be fixed next semester. But you can’t do it unless you try. I mean, let’s say that you do find yourself still wanting to join the Violet Troupe after this next semester. If you do join, it’s going to be harder than anything that Ember has ever taught you so far! And who’s to say that you won’t want to give up on that after a while?”

“I won’t! I’m actually good at something like that!”

“And you’re good at being a Huntsman! I’ve seen it! Not just when I trained you, but also when Ember trained you! You have this amazing gift to see things in rhythm without the use of Aura or Semblance! You have a good heart that cares about people! These things could make you one of the greatest warriors to walk the face of Remnant, but you won’t get there unless you try!”

“I don’t want to try! I know what I want, and I know I want to go with Ember and the Violet Troupe!”

“UGH! RIGHT BACK TO SQUARE ONE!”

“Traci, let me talk to him.”

“Fine. Go ahead Ember.” Traci then sat down next to her husband while Ember walked over to Nathan and got down on one knee.

“Ember, I want to go with you and join the Violet Troupe.”

“Nathan, you made a promise to your parents. You promised a full year before making a final decision.” 

“Yeah but….”

“No buts mister. Look, wait outside for me. I’m going to talk to your parents for a little bit, and then I’m going to talk to you in private away from them. Is that good with you?” Nathan crossed his arms in anger, and then got up and went outside without saying a word, slamming the door behind him. Natalie tried to get a better look as to what was going on, and saw her mother trying to hold back tears while her father comforted her.

“I’m sorry you had to see that Ember.”

“It’s all right Traci. Nathan is a good kid. He just doesn’t really know what direction he wants to take his life right now.”

“I know you care about him as much as I do, but tell me honestly. Do you think he should go with you and join the Violet Troupe?”

“No. He shouldn’t. He’s somebody who cares deeply about people like you said. But there’s something even bigger than that that I think is why Nathan shouldn’t follow my path.”

“And what’s that?”

“I joined the Violet Troupe because I believed that it would make a better difference regarding how the world viewed my people in contrast to being a Huntress and being judged by society no matter what I did. I joined the Troupe because I believed that I was and still am making a difference in Faunus rights. But with Nathan, not only is he human, but he also thinks that he has to follow me to the ends of Remnant. He looks up to me as a performer, as I think he does also to you as a Huntress. And I think he’s so afraid of failing you, that he thinks he can fall back to me and still be loved and accepted.”

“Yeah, Nathan has always tried to find the easy path to anything. But do you really think that he can find his own path on his own?”

“Not without help from his friends. Besides, he can’t rely on you forever, and he can’t rely on me forever. He has to learn how to grow up sometime, and in this world, the sooner the better. And I think being a Huntsman is what he will end up doing. He needs to do something where he can truly make a difference. He can’t do that while travelling the world with the Violet Troupe and me. So I’m going to try and convince him, and maybe this next semester we can both go see him some more times to train him. Plus, I think I know the perfect way to get him to try again.”

“You do that Ember. He doesn’t listen to me anymore.”

“He loves you Traci. He just has to understand that you love him too even when he thinks he’s failing you.” With that said, Ember started walking outside, and Natalie quickly headed back upstairs and snuck through the bathroom window and onto the porch roof to listen in on the conversation.

“My mom finish ranting about why I should go back to school and shouldn’t join you in the Violet Troupe? I hope you convinced her I’m in the right on this one.”

“Nathan, I agree with your mom. You should continue to try and be a Huntsman.”

“WHAT? WHY? I don’t care about being a Huntsman! I’m ready to just travel the world with you and do what I’m actually good at! I’ve gotten the best training from you to do so, and I’m only getting better!”

“Nathan, calm down. Drumming is important to you, I get that. But this is something I have seen in you since the night I met you. You have tried to find something you’re good at so people will give you attention and love for it. And while it is true I get a lot of praise for what I do, the praise is not why I joined the Violet Troupe.”

“It isn’t?”

“Given my heritage, I have had to spend a good portion of my life dealing with racism and hatred. I joined the troupe as a means of giving people a better understanding and good role models of what the Faunus can do when working together with the human society. And I did it in artistic ways, not by just simply waving signs around like the White Fang does all the time. And that’s why I keep doing this. This isn’t your fight.”

“But Ember, I’m no good at fighting. I’m no good at being a Huntsman. My mom’s a legendary fighter. If I keep failing, how can I make her proud of me?”

“You already have.”

“How do you know?”

“She tells me about it all the time whenever we talk over the CCT while I’m on tour. She talks about how she’s so happy that you’ve gone to combat school and how you’ve been constantly getting up no matter how hard it got at times.”

“Yeah, but it didn’t do me any good. I have some of the lowest grades in my class, I stink at close quarters combat, and I don’t have any friends there!”

“What about Evan?”

“He was given the privilege of higher level classes a few weeks in after initiation, so I didn’t really get to see him at all this semester.”

“Aha. So, what are Jacob and Beanie doing right now?”

“Beanie is off doing something with some internship, and I think Jacob’s family moved away to Mistral for some reason. Our core group of friends are just scattered all over the place right now. And I feel like, if I can’t make any friends doing something I’m not good at, then at least I can try again doing something I love doing.”

“Nathan, one of the wonders of the human heart is that when friends go far away, they’ll never truly be gone forever, and the heart always has room for new friends. Besides, the grades can be fixed with some practice and training.”

“But I haven’t even discovered my semblance yet. And I don’t even have a weapon I prefer to use.”

“Actually, I think I have just the thing for you.” As she said this, there was a clicking sound like Ember was opening a case. Natalie couldn’t see what it was, and she didn’t dare move not wanting to risk letting them know she was up there.

“Ember, I….”

“Nathan, give combat school one more chance. And when you use these weapons, I hope you won’t just think of them as mere tools. But rather, as a reminder.”

“Reminder? Of what?”

“That no matter what happens in life, whether you become a Huntsman or find a different path in life, whenever you feel alone and you miss me, your parents, your sister, your brother, your friends, that they will always be with you. And even if one of them goes away…” as she said this, Natalie saw a purple stick fly out towards the nearby tree, then bounce off it and back towards the porch. “…it will come back to you if you let it.”

“WHOA! Ember, how did you do that?!”

“Well, I’ve got a few days before I leave with the troupe on our next tour, and you have a few weeks before you go back to school. I figured I could train you in how to use these.”

“THANK YOU!”

“You’re welcome Nathan. But remember, you have to give combat school at least one more semester.”

“All right Ember.” 

“Good. Now, I think you should go apologize to your mother. You really hurt her feelings with that explosion.”

“Okay.” Natalie remained perfectly still as she heard her brother walk back into the house, but didn’t hear Ember leave.

“You know, you aren’t very good at hiding little one.” Natalie almost jumped when she heard this, and then before she could blink, Ember had jumped up on the roof next to her.

“How did you…”

“You can’t fool these ears Natls.” Ember said wiggling her cat ears. Natalie giggled as Ember did so, and the two of them stood up.  
“Your brother is a good kid Natalie. He needs everybody in his life to help make him a good man.”

“And what about me Ember? What am I going to become?”

“Natls, nobody can decide that but you. People might give you suggestions and advice, but ultimately, it’s your choice.” Ember smiled, and messed up Natalie’s hair, inciting some laughter. “Now get to bed you crazy girl. I would hate to see your mother in more of a fit than she already was tonight.” With that said, Natalie quickly jumped back into the bathroom, and quickly made her way back to her room. As she jumped in bed, she heard a bit of a quiet discussion between her brother and her mother, but toned it out as she focused on the flashing red light of the support tower for the CCT, and just focused in on its repetitive and hypnotic flashing.  


 

“Natalie! Are you even paying attention?” Natalie shot her attention from the flashing red light and looked up to see that her teacher was standing right above her with a menacing look in his eyes.

“Sorry Mr. Luthy. Just uh…was trying to figure out the equation that’s all!”

“Young lady, this is history class.”

“Well…of course! I was trying to figure out…the equation where…. the Schnee Company figured out how to….”

“Just see me after class please.” Natalie groaned and laid her head on her desk in disappointment.  


 

As class ended and everybody started pouring out of the classroom, Natalie just continued to sit there. Mr. Luthy made sure everybody was gone, then got up and walked over to Natalie, with a file in his hand.

“This has happened pretty much every year since you started the general education program Natalie. Every time the Violet Troupe comes back to town, you space out and neglect almost all your studies. I’m not saying this surprises me, but I do want to know, why? I mean, nobody ever asked why in the past, but since this is your next to last year before being eligible to go off to combat school or other forms of education, I want to know.”

“Do you really need a reason other than a kid being excited that school’s almost over Mr. Luthy?”

“Fair enough, but even the most troublesome of your classmates are still able to not be as easily distracted in the final days of the year.” He placed the file down on her desk and opened it up. “You have some of the highest grades I’ve ever seen in this school. You could do anything with your life, and yet you haven’t declared anything either Huntress related or otherwise. Personally, I think you would make a great politician.”

“No, I hate being around big crowds of people.”

“But you are great when with your friends. And you have quite a few of those. Besides, your heart and ambitions stand for the same ideals that Aequo stands for. We need people like that to take charge and help change the world to make it a better place.”

“I’m only eight years old. I still have seven years before I even become an adult.”

“That may be so, but in this world, you have to start thinking like an adult at a young age. I’ve set up a meeting with your parents in two days time. We will discuss what we think is the best course of action and go from there. You may go now.” Natalie quickly got up, grabbed her things, and ran out the door before Mr. Luthy could even say anything else.

“Just like her mother…”  


 

As Natalie continued to head back home, she quickly jumped out of the way of the oncoming traffic for the police escort of the Violet Troupe through the town square. As the troupe passed, there were a ton of cheers from the crowd that had gathered to welcome them back to Aequo. The performers who had much more complicated acts were standing on top of the tour busses and just simply waving to the crowd, while the gymnasts and dancers lead the way giving the traditional return show before the big show they would have the following night. Natalie weaved her way through the crowd, pulling up the hood on her jacket as she did so. As soon as she got through the crazy group, she looked back and saw Ember playing on the drums at the very back of the parade. Ember turned and waved to Natalie, and Natalie waved back with a huge smile on her face. She continued down the sidewalk backwards as she did so, and ran into somebody and fell over.

“Oh gosh Natalie, I’m sorry. Are you okay?” Natalie collected herself, and saw one of her classmates standing right above her.

“I’m fine.” She said as she got back up. “Uh, remind me again who you are?”

“Trevor. I live across from the cliffside, remember?”

“Oh yeah. How’s life been?”

“Eh, hit or miss. I’m personally doing great. All the teachers are saying I could be one of the worlds leading scientists and suggest I go to Atlas to study.”

“So, how does that create a hit or miss situation?”

“My older brother is still trying to figure out what to do with his life. He’s ten now, and still hasn’t left for any form of school.”

“Well that stinks. Does he want to be a Huntsman? Or something else?”

“Well he claims he wants to be a Huntsman, but he still hasn’t left home yet to go to combat school. I think he just wants to live an easy life and doesn’t realize yet that to get anywhere requires hard work.”

“Well, that’s a bummer I guess. But at least you’re doing well!

“Yeah. Well, I’ve gotta go. Me and my brother are supposed to be grabbing dinner from the chicken place, but he got a head start on me.”

“Well don’t let me hold you back any longer! I’ll see you around!”

“Yeah, see you!”  


 

As Natalie walked into her house, she saw both her mom and her dad getting dinner ready.

“I thought dad was going to get Nathan from the bus stop?”

“He was, but then Nathan called ahead and said since it was such a nice day, he was going to walk home. The bus won’t reach the stop for about an hour, and it will take him another hour to get here, perfect timing for when Ember will probably be joining us as soon as she finished her parade.”

“Neat! Hey mom, do you think we can do some training while we wait for the two drummers to get here?”

“I don’t see why not. You good doing the cooking while I do this hon?”

“I’ve got this sweetheart. You just worry about training the next hero in the family.” The two smiled, and gave each other a quick smooch, and her mom grabbed the 3D hologram training module. The two of them walked outside and her mom turned it on, creating a plethora of weapons just floating in the air. Natalie grabbed the scythe, while her mother grabbed a sword and held it in reverse.

“Trying the scythe again Natalie? You sure you don’t want to try any other weapons?”

“One, I like it. Two, I’m good at using it. And three, I like it.”

“All right little lady. I’ll set the parameters to the usual levels. You get 200 HP while I get 50 and I go all out. Fair?”

“Actually, give me 100 HP this time.”

“Oho, a bit of a risky move, don’t you think?”

“I only took 147 damage last time, and that was when I was a bit tired after school. I think even if I don’t win, I can at least last five minutes against you.”

“All right then Natls, bring it on!” With that said, their weapons flashed a bright blue, signifying the start of the match. Natalie charged forward quickly, trying to catch her mother off guard. But she was able to see it coming rather quickly and parry her blows with relative ease.

“Faster. Destroy my focus.” Natalie continued to try and get a hit on her mother, but she was always a step ahead. All of a sudden, her mom did a spin move and sliced her blade right through Natalie’s chest and out the back. Suddenly a buzzer sounded on their weapons as they faded from existence.

“Ugh, stupid critical points.”

“Not bad Natalie. But it was clear as day that you were trying to use a more power-centric type of movement. Not bad to practice with it when in basic training, but when you are trying to challenge me, I would suggest going with something you are more familiar with.”

“Yeah, okay mom.” Natalie said as she collapsed on the ground.

“You want to go another round or two? Or maybe let me help you train with that new style you were trying?”

“Nah, I think I’m just going to lie here for a while. It is such a beautiful night.”

“Now don’t lie down there for too long. Ember should be getting here in about half an hour, and once Nathan gets here, I expect you to be cleaned up and ready to eat with the rest of the family.”

“Okay mom.” With that said, her mom went back in the house with the module in hand, while Natalie continued to look upwards to the sky. She looked up to the top of the western mountain and got entranced once again by the flashing of the red light on the CCT support tower.  


 

“Are you even awake Natls?” Natalie jumped up from her seat on the porch and saw Ember standing right next to her. They both giggled and sat back down.  
“I guess your brother is still running a bit behind.”

“Meh. It’s a nice night. Can you really blame him?”

“I guess not. He has always loved the outdoors. Heh, even when I was just simply teaching him percussion, on warm nights like this one, he would beg me if we could practice outside. It’s a good thing, wanting to be out in the sun.”

“Yeah, I love it too!”

“It’s so easy to forget how young you two are, and yet how old you’re getting. And by gosh, your brother is just shooting right up, isn’t he?”

“Yeah. He’ll turn four this next month.”

“Wow. Time sure does fly, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, it sure does.”

“Hey, Natls…” all of a sudden, there was a rumbling within the earth. It caused Natalie to fall onto one knee, and Ember had to grab one of the support beams on the porch to keep her footing.

“What was that?” As soon as Natalie asked this, the CCT support tower started falling down the side of the mountain, with a lot of debris falling off the tower and spreading out across the width of the mountain. Before it reached the base of the mountain and the houses it was rumbling right towards, a few of the closest Huntsmen jumped up to the falling tower and blocked it with their weaponry, slowing its descent. While Natalie and Ember looked on in confusion, both Traci and her husband ran out with weapons in hand.

“Ember, we’re going to make sure this wasn’t the result of a Grimm attack with the rest of the Huntsmen. You stay here and keep an eye on our children. With the tower down, there will be no way we can get in touch with Nathan and vice versa. So for the time being, we will do what we can. If we come back and there’s no problem, we’ll go look for Nathan together.”

“Smart. I’m not going anywhere unless I absolutely have to. Be safe you two.”

“Matthew is upstairs taking a nap; make sure you wake him up. Take care of our kids Ember.”

“I will.” With that said, they took off to where the tower had collapsed, and Ember lead Natalie back inside.

“Is everything all right Ember?”

“Well, I’m not sure yet. If there is a Grimm attack imminent, then there could be a potential problem. But it’s probably just the fact that the tower has been sitting up there for so long without people making sure the base wasn’t eroding away because of the weather. I think….” All of a sudden, a loud explosion was heard from the direction of the city square. The two of them ran back outside to the porch to see smoke rising from the square. Then, several more explosions went off, each one from a different house in both directions from the square. And they were getting closer to their house.

“NATALIE! GRAB YOUR BROTHER AND GET TO THE BASEMENT! NOW!” Natalie didn’t waste any time at all. She turned and started running up the stairs to her brother’s room. As she reached the top, and turned down the hall to their room, a giant explosion went off and knocked Natalie on her back. For a while, all she could hear was a ringing in her ears. When she finally got her bearings back, she realized the explosion had come from her room, and the fire was growing even stronger. She rushed forward and tried to run into the blaze, but all of a sudden, the ceiling collapsed and blocked the path to the room. Natalie fell to her knees and started crying, not sure how else to respond. Then it became like a blur. She went downstairs and ran outside, trying to escape from the fire. As she made her way outside, she realized that she hadn’t seen Ember since the room exploded. She looked all around and saw everything was on fire. Not seeing anybody else, she started running towards the town square, not sure what she would find. But as she reached the square, what she saw horrified her. She saw all her family and friends rounded up in a makeshift cage, with soldiers wearing Grimm Masks pointing guns right at them. She also saw members of the Violet Troupe on their knees, with another young man with red hair, somebody who looked not that much older than Nathan, yelling at the troupe members.

“…you have done nothing but be slaves to a system that prefers humans to your own brothers and sisters! Wake up! The Violet Troupe is not creating peace! They are making a mockery of our proud Faunus heritage! We in the White Fang are actually changing the world! Now I offer each of you a choice, a choice I will ask you one by one.” As soon as he said this, he drew his sword and walked over to the troupe member on the far left. Natalie couldn’t hear what he said next, but she clearly saw it. In an instant, the stranger’s sword took the troupe member’s head clean off, sending it rolling in the dirt away from the now limp body. Natalie almost screamed, but managed to keep quiet so she wouldn’t be noticed. The stranger in the mask continued this trend down the line of troupe members. Some stood up and then got on one knee before him, while others met the same fate as the first troupe member. Natalie scanned the lineup to see if Ember was amongst their number, but she wasn’t. She sighed in relief as soon as she realized Ember was safe, but that relief quickly turned to distress as soon as she saw a few other guards leading her parents into the cage, with her father’s eye gouged out and her mother missing a hand. She initially considered trying to rescue them, but stayed back realizing that not only did she not have a weapon, but she was also vastly outnumbered. She decided to wait and see what would happen. Then, out of nowhere, a kid wielding a white sword rushed right into the middle of the soldiers.

“GUARDS! DEAL WITH THIS IMBECILE!” As soon as the stranger yelled this command, the guards immediately rushed towards the attacker, holding him off and keeping him from attacking. Within seconds, he was subdued on the ground, completely unable to move. Then, the man in command drew his sword and walked over to the cage where everybody was captured.

“This is what happens when you try to be a hero kid. Take it from me, no matter what you do in life, everything you care about will die.” With one swift strike, he sliced right through the cage, immediately killing everybody inside. At that moment, there was a sound that caused an echo loud enough to shake both mountains, as Natalie, the stranger with the white sword, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Nathan screamed in horror. As soon as the moment, passed, Natalie looked over at the stranger with the white sword, who also looked straight back at her. Their eyes met for a few seconds, both not sure how to react. Then, the stranger simply lipped the word “run” to her. She hesitated, but then she saw that Nathan was trying to charge into the crowd of enemy troops, his body covered in this weird flame. She took a few steps backwards, and then ran back towards her own house. As she continued to run, an airship passed overhead, heading straight for the town square. But Natalie didn’t stop running. As soon as she reached her house, she saw Ember clearly wounded, staggering towards the house.

“Ember!”

“Natalie!” The two of them gave each other a huge hug.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. It’s you I’m glad to see. I thought you were caught in that explosion in your house.”

“The blast hit me, but I’m okay. But Matthew….” She trailed off at this point, and Ember hugged her even tighter this time.

“I’m so sorry.”

“What are we going to do now? They’ve got Nathan. They’ve killed my parents, they’ve killed everybody! I just…I just….”

“Natalie, listen to me, they are most likely going to do one last sweep for survivors, and I’m not going to let them get you. Let’s get inside your house. The fire hasn’t reached the basement yet, we can hide down there.”

“Okay….” The two of them quickly then ran downstairs into the basement and found one of the closets. They opened up the door and cleared out anything that would get in their way. Suddenly, the ceiling collapsed above them, revealing the night sky and the dancing flames on the floor above. The two of them then closed the door and began to wait. A few minutes passed, then there were the sounds of footsteps on the floor above.

“Search every corner of this house. We have direct orders, nobody is allowed to leave this place other than the two that Lord Mortem spared.” The footsteps then started spreading throughout the house, and a few made their way to the basement.

“Natalie listen to me. You stay here, and you stay hidden. With luck, if they find me, they might not look for you. Now no matter what you hear or what you see, you are not to leave this closet until the sun comes up. You hear me? Until you see the sun, you are not to leave this closet.”

“Ember, no!”

“I love you so much Natls. Take care of your brother for me.” She gave Natalie a kiss on the forehead, and then she snuck out of the closet. Natalie huddled herself in a corner in a fetal position, scared beyond belief. She then heard a sword being drawn, and then a lot of yelling. Then, for a split second, silence before a thud, and the unmistakable sound of a sword leaving a human body. Then, a pair of footsteps started moving towards the closet. Natalie backed herself into a corner, knowing that no matter where she hid, they would see her without any problems whatsoever. The door flung open, the stranger with the red hair stood before her, and shone a flashlight into the closet. He looked left, he looked right, and he looked straight at Natalie, but then he turned off the flashlight and turned away from the closet.

“There’s nobody else here.” Natalie didn’t believe it. How did they not see her? She held her hand up to the moonlight, but she couldn’t see a thing. She couldn’t see herself! She had unlocked her semblance, and right now, she couldn’t have wished more in her life that it was not awakened on this night of all nights. She looked out at the man with red hair, as he stood there under the moonlight.

“Soldiers, leave me.” There were a bunch of footfalls that went up the stairs and out the main door of the house, leaving only the man with the mask before Natalie. Then, all of a sudden, a man wearing a grey trench coat with a red interior jumped down into the basement. He had flowing black hair, and stood almost as tall as the man with red hair.

“You have done well Adam Taurus.” As soon as he said this, the man he addressed as Adam fell to one knee.

“I aim to please, Lord Mortem.”

“You showed no remorse when it came to killing not only the humans, but your own brethren of the Faunus race. You listened to my command to a point when you spared those two foolish children and let my associate, Vinculum Memoriare do what he needed to do. And when I told you to make sure that other than those two that there were no survivors, you performed exceptionally. I am impressed. But now, tell me what I wish to know.”

“My lord, I regret to inform you that the scans came back negative. The dragon is not in either of the two mountains.”

“Such a shame. I’ll have to kill that fool who swore they were here. He was such a good obedient soldier too. Never thought to double-check his information though. That’s why I am naming you the new link between the White Fang and the Order. That fool who runs the White Fang now is soft, and does not fit my goals. But with a man like you helping pull the strings, in time the White Fang will be a force that will rule alongside the Order. But for now, we have no further business here. Tell your troops to burn the remaining buildings, and to leave immediately. Also, send out word of this attack to our contacts in the Atlesian Military at first light. It would seem that Vale still hasn’t noticed what has happened here, which is good for us. Finish what needs to be done Taurus, I’ll be waiting for you on the command ship. And I suggest getting it done quickly. The main floor on this house will soon be engulfed in flames.”

“Yes my lord.” As soon as he finished, Lord Mortem jumped up to the main floor and left, with Adam right behind him. Natalie continued not to move at all, not even a single inch. She looked up at the moon, and closed her eyes as tears streamed down her face. When she opened them again, she saw the sun glaring right at her. She figured she must have fallen asleep and only now just woke up. She looked at herself, and she was still invisible. But as soon as she started walking out of the closet, she started to re-appear. She looked around, and saw that her house was almost nothing but ashes now, a shade of what was standing there before. She slowly walked up the stairs, not sure what she would see, but knew she would find. She then saw a burned body; the only thing recognizable was a necklace around her neck. It was a purple cymbal, Natalie recognized it as something her mother had given Ember as a thank you gift for helping Nathan get back on track with combat school. Natalie then became overcome with emotion and started weeping over Ember’s body. She didn’t even stop crying when her brother ran up to her and saw the body as well. She then looked up at the sun, tears in her eyes, not sure what else to do, as her brother continued to try and ask her what happened.

“Tell me Natalie! I need to know! Natalie! Natalie!”  


 

“Natalie!” Natalie shot awake, and saw that the sun was beginning to peek over the edge of the horizon below them. She looked around and saw that Ruby and Christy had already woken up and had gotten their weapons ready, while Nora was still sleeping.

“How close are we Miles?” Natalie asked as she unbuckled herself and stood up.

“We are about two minutes out. We had a bit of a problem with a headwind and we are already behind schedule. I’m not even sure what to expect down there. But that doesn’t matter. We aren’t going to leave until we know exactly what has happened to your brother.” Then, all of a sudden a Griffon flew past the airship towards Aequo at a top speed.

“Shoot, we might be already too late. Get your weapon ready fearless leader. I think we’re going in hot.” Natalie nodded, made sure her weapon was loaded and had plenty of cartridges in case she needed them, and walked over to the open side door and got ready to jump.

“Hey Natalie,” Christy placed her hand on her shoulder. “You doing okay? Bad dream?” Natalie looked at her confused for a second, then wiped her hand across her face and realized that she was crying. She dried her tears and turned back towards the open door.

“I’m fine. Not sure where that came from. Maybe it was a bad dream. I don’t remember.” As the airship made their final descent to Aequo, they saw Nathan fighting off a huge horde of Grimm.

“Don’t worry big bro. I’ll protect you.” Natalie said under her breath.


	16. Episode 1: Chapter 12: Reconcile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 12 of Episode 1 of Order of Seasons

The airship began its final descent in between the mountains, and then all of a sudden the ship started rocking back and forth as it was bombarded by wind.

“What’s happening?” Weiss yelled.

“Dang it!" Miles yelled as he steadied himself.  "I forgot about the morning winds in this old place! We’re going to have to jump for it!”

“Miles are you sure that’s such a good idea?”

“We have no choice Natalie, look!” Natalie looked out the door and down to the surface and saw her brother fighting off a huge horde of Grimm and was clearly fighting a losing battle.

“We have to get down there now!” With no hesitation, Natalie leapt out the door, pulled out her weapon, split it in two, and fired rounds from the now divided weapon trying to not only create a landing space for herself, but also get some of the creatures off her brother. As soon as she landed, she combined her weapon back into one whole piece and rushed over to her brother’s side.

“Ugh…Natalie?”

“No time for sentiment Nathan. We saw a small horde of Griffons and a few Nevermores heading straight for this location. We have numbers on our side, but it’ll still be a pretty big challenge.”

“Numbers?”

“You didn’t think I was going to let you run off that easily, did you Nathan?” Yang yelled as she landed on top of a Griffon and punched it to oblivion.

“Even though we’ve only known your first years for a few months, we have gotten to know all of you well enough to call each one of you friends.” Weiss said as she landed and launched a barrage of ice glyphs.

“This is my home too Nathan. I’m not going to see it destroyed so easily.” Evan yelled as he emerged from an illusion space to take down another Griffon with his spear.

“We’ve all made mistakes we aren’t proud of in the past. What’s important is how we move forward now.” Jacob said as he entered his time dilation state to quickly slice up a small pack of Griffons that were off to the side.

“Nobody’s perfect. That’s why I’ve always been happy for the friends I have now. They helped guide me to the best path in my life.” Pyrrha said as she also landed and began establishing a perimeter around Nathan.

“Yeah yeah we get it. Everybody cares about Nathan and friendship is magic and all that. Does everybody really need to say a piece? We’re trying to fight for our lives here!” Miles yelled as he fell through the sky slicing through both Griffons and a Nevermore. He landed almost right next to Nathan, and looked straight at him, not sure what to expect. But looking into Nathan’s eyes, and he into his, there was no hatred in either of their eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’ll face your judgment as you see fit once this is all over. But for now, we have some monsters to destroy. I am not about to let my hometown be destroyed any more than it already has.” As he said this, everybody else landed and began engaging the multiple Grimm in the area. Nathan looked around, and then stood upright.

“It’s my home too. I won’t let anything else bad happen to it.”

“Um, it’s also Jacob’s, Evan’s, and my home as well guys. It’s not solely your thing.” Natalie said in an annoyed sarcastic tone.

“We’re having an epic moment here Natls. Don’t ruin it.” Natalie rolled her eyes at her brother’s remark.

“I swear, you and Yang were made for each other.”

“Enough talk. You got a plan fearless leader?” Miles asked ready to launch into battle.

“Yeah. All the heavy hitters take out the Nevermores, the ranged people take down any more incoming, and you, me and the agile fighters take out every Grimm we can find.”

“Huh. That’s actually a good idea.”

“I can have sensible plans from time to time.”

“All right then. Let’s have at it.”  


 

Leo was just sitting in the corner of his cell looking out his tiny window as the first rays of sunlight began to peek in. He kept picking loose hairs off his tail trying to kill his boredom as he couldn’t sleep and breakfast wasn’t for another few hours. He looked out at the guard that was keeping an eye on the cellblock, and noticed that he was just simply sitting there reading the paper. But he also noticed that this guard was a Faunus. He started chuckling, which quickly caught the attention of the guard.

“Something funny kid?”

“Why yes officer, I do find something funny. I find it funny that despite you being apart of such a proud and superior race, the humans have given you the worst treatment. I’ve seen all the other guards around here. During the day, all the guards are human. While during the night watch, all the guards are Faunus. They don’t trust you with when the prisoners are awake, so they wait until we are all asleep and vulnerable and let you handle it from there.” The guard stood up and walked over to the cell door. Leo also got up and walked over to the cell door as well.

“You are a proud Faunus. Help me get out of this cell and I can take you to the White Fang. I can….” Leo never got to finish as the guard punched him in the face through the cell door.

“You stupid racist. You think that your group is actually changing Faunus rights don’t you? Well here’s a wake up call. First, ever since your little stunt with Cinder Fall last year, humans and faunus have realized how desperate you crazy people are for power. During said invasion, humans and faunus worked together against you and created a large step forward in equal right. And second, I happen to be happily married to a human and we don’t let something as stupid as our appendages get in the way! So you can take your backwards way of thinking and rot in this cell for all I care!”

“Fool.” Leo said as he slowly got up. “You’ve been blinded by your own ignorance. You have believed in a system that prefers their own kind to ours. You….”

“I have every right to open this door and taser you until you stop moving right now. So shut up and get back in your corner.” Leo backed away from the officer and back into his corner. All of a sudden, the door to the cellblock opened and a new guard walked in.

“You’re done for the night Equeus.”

“Really? I still have an hour left on my shift.”

“I got here early, and the boss is letting you go home early without docking any pay. Get out of here. Weatherman says it’s going to be a nice one today.”

“Well all right then. Be careful around the new White Fake though. He’s as dumb and racist as they come.”

“I had a shift yesterday with this kid; I think I can handle him. Get some sleep man, you look like you need it.”

“Yeah, having a six-month old isn’t the best on a night off, but by gosh do I love the little guy.”

“Good for you man. Now get out of here, I’d hate to keep you.” With that said, Equeus left the cellblock leaving the new guard to just sit there, not saying a word. Leo just sat back in the corner of his cell, deciding to wait some more until it was time for breakfast. But then, the guard pulled out his walkie talkie, and activated it simply saying,

“He’s here, and he’s on the way to the primary target.”

“Fine. Stay there until I arrive. Is our man in the security room in place?”

“Yes sir.”

“Perfect. I will be at your location in about a minute. Stand by the door for when I arrive.” As soon as the order was finished, the guard stood up, and walked over to the cellblock door. Leo didn’t really care, as he just stood up and stared out the window. Even when the cellblock door opened, he didn’t avert his gaze from the rising sun.

“Are you going to just stare out the window until something happens or are you actually the strong soldier I trained?” Leo quickly turned around as he recognized the voice that suddenly appeared outside his cell.

“Master Adam?”

“Get this door open Judict. We don’t have a lot of time.”

“Of course Lord Taurus.”

“Adam, why are you working with this human? This betrays everything the White Fang stands for!”

“Leo, there are more powerful forces than the White Fang at work here.”

“What other forces? The White Fang is the most powerful Faunus activists in the world!”

“And they answer to another, more influential source. One that even some of the world leaders bow to.”

“What? Who could have that much power?”

“In time, you will learn. But for now, I still have my primary mission to complete.”

“Primary mission?”

“You didn’t think I used these contacts in the prison for you, did you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Forget it. I don’t have a lot of time. Come with me. We are heading to the basement.”

“What’s in the basement?”

“Save your questions for later. All will be revealed in time.”  


 

Ren and Christy were moving extremely well. Through Ren’s weaponry and agility, he was able to lead several different Griffons to where Christy was hiding so she could get on the back of each individual Griffon starting from the back and worked her way to the front, slowly but efficiently picking off each and every one of them. Meanwhile, Nora and Ty were tearing up a Nevermore that was foolish enough to fly close to the two of them. Nora launched herself onto the head of the creature, and smashed it right in the head sending it spiraling to the ground towards Ty, who prepared his sword and drove it right through the forehead of the creature. Ruby, Natalie, Pyrrha and Brooklyn were running a super crazy tag team combo. Ruby and Natalie rushed right through a pair of Griffon’s and started tearing them to pieces. Whatever creatures didn’t get caught up and sliced to ribbons by their blades were tossed out to the blades of Brooklyn and Pyrrha, easily destroying the unfocused creatures. Meanwhile, Evan easily tricked several Griffon’s and a Nevermore into flying into an illusion space that was filled with ice spikes that had been created by Weiss. Jacob and Jaune were busy slicing through another group of Griffons with their swords. Jacob didn’t even need to be in his time dilation state while Jaune was actually holding his own for a change. Blake and Yang quickly teamed up to use the Bumblebee move to swing Yang around and smash another Nevermore into the side of the mountain, crushing several more Griffons in the process. Meanwhile, Nathan and Miles faced off against another Nevermore that had landed right in front of them.

“Think you can handle this after such an emotional night?”

“Go jump in a lake Watson.”

“I’ll take that as a yes. Formation X-Blade?”

“Let’s do it.” With that said, the two of them leapt to each side of the Nevermore, Miles tossing his white sword to Nathan, and Nathan in turn tossed Miles one of his clubs. The two of them threw their own clubs at the Nevermore’s head, smashing it into the ground. Then, with Miles pulling them both each in a specific direction, they went hurtling down towards the creature, beheading it in one swift motion. The two of them got up and returned the weapons to their proper owners.

“All right, anything else?” Miles then looked around and saw that every single Grimm had been dealt with and completely destroyed.

“That was easier than expected.” Natalie said with a sigh.

“Yeah, once you fight pretty much every single Grimm in the Kingdom, everything else seems kind of small.” Ruby said holstering her weapon. Miles sheathed his white sword and walked over to Nathan. He then stuck his black sword into the ground, sat on his knees, and placed his hands on the pommel of the sword.

“I know I can’t undo what I did, and you have every right to hate me. I leave my fate in your hands.” Nathan looked over at him, then dropped his clubs to the ground, pulled out Miles’ black sword and threw it to the side, then embraced him.

“Killing you isn’t what she would want. I know we haven’t really gotten along since the day we met, but you are my teammate, my friend, and I think in time, we can become brothers. We both acted irrationally all those years ago, and I acted irrationally yesterday. But I’m not going to become the bad guy here.”

“Nathan, that’s great and all, but people are looking right at us, and I don’t think you hugging me was what they thought was going to happen.” Nathan let Miles go and sat next to him.

“Sorry about that.”

“Eh, no harm no foul, just don’t do anything like that again unless I expect it.”

“Fair enough.” Tired of waiting, Natalie dropped her weapon and ran over to Nathan, tackling him and hugging the life out of him.

“I’m okay sis. I’m okay.”

“Don’t do anything this stupid ever again.”

“How can I? I’m me.” The two of them laughed at this, continuing to hug it out. Yang was about to walk over to the two of them, but Blake held her back.

“Give them some time. I think we have some things to discuss while they figure things out.”  


 

The elevator began to descend as Adam, Leo and the guard stood in silence. As the numbers flashed for each floor they passed, Leo began growing impatient.

“What are we here for Adam? I’m sick of this nonsense! Were you just planning on leaving me to rot in prison?! And what is this primary objective you are so fixated on?! You’ve been leaving me in the dark ever since that stupid Vinculum Memoriare guy showed up! For one thing, he’s a human! Why would you do something like this? I thought you learned your lesson from the last time we tried following the orders of a human! And another thing….”

“Silence yourself Leo. We have arrived.” As soon as he said this, the elevator doors opened and the three of them walked out. The room was poorly lit, and in front of them was a giant vault.

“What is this place Adam?”

“Guard, where is the storage unit?”

“They placed it right next to her Lord Taurus.”

“Very well. Do I take it immediately or do I have to take care of her first?”

“I would recommend taking the storage container first because she is hooked up to a system that sets off an alarm that not even we can shut down without arousing suspicion.”

“Very well. I will distract her while you take the containment unit. Open the door.” The guard nodded and opened up the vault door, and revealed who was inside.

“It’s a bit early for my morning food paste, isn’t it Mr. Praes? Or did you come down here just to visit me?” Adam walked in and straight towards the voice. As Leo’s eyes adjusted, he instantly recognized the person in restraints.

“Cinder Fall.” He said under his breath.

“Oho, Adam. Loyal to the end. Glad to see that somebody still believes in my vision. Now then, cut me down from here and release the Fall Maiden’s aura. With it, I will regain what I have lost!” Adam then motioned over to the guard, and he unhooked the containment unit that had the Fall Maiden’s power within it.

“Give it to Leo.” The guard nodded and handed it to Leo. Adam then drew his sword and pointed it at Leo. “Let me make this clear to you. If you drop that containment unit and release what is inside, whether it was on purpose or on accident, I will kill you without hesitation or remorse.” Leo nodded more in confusion than fear, thinking to himself that Adam would never to such a thing to him. Adam then turned to Cinder who was growing more and more impatient.

“Adam, what are you waiting for? Release me!”

“Did you not find it strange Cinder, that despite having run off, you weren’t hunted nor were you punished?”

“What are you talking about?”

“HE knew that you would try to awaken the dragon and create the rift of darkness to summon you mistress. So he let you wander freely, and tasked me with making sure you made no move that would completely thwart his plans, and believe me, it took a lot of convincing to make you attack Vale and not wait for the next tournament in Atlas in four years.”

“No…it can’t be…”

“I only followed your orders so that his orders would be completed. And despite that stupid child of the Summer Maiden getting in the way, he now has the dragon’s power and now, he will have his second maiden.”

“You…. all this time he kept you a secret from even me.”

“Yes. I am the liaison between the Fang and the Order.” As soon as Adam said this, he raised his sword and plunged it right through Cinder’s chest. Cinder gasped for breath as she felt her life slipping away. But then she gathered enough breath for one last chuckle and said,

“Do you really think…he can stop her? Nothing…. can defeat her power!”

“Nothing? Then what about the power of her creator?” Cinder’s eyes widened, and then went dead as the last of her life faded away. An alarm started going off throughout the prison, and the three of them started heading for the exit.

“Why did you kill her Adam? Now the whole base knows we’re here!”

“Because those were my orders. And I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of that. Now then Judict, I suggest you get going. Leo and I will take the emergency escape rails out of here. Let us know if anything happens and the Order will clean up any mess you might be stuck with.”

“Thank you Lord Taurus” the guard said falling to one knee. Adam then took Leo and the containment unit over to a wall. Then, Adam placed his ring onto the wall and a panel slid up revealing a train car with tracks that lead deep underground. He and Leo got in quickly, and the train was off, closing the wall behind them and barreling ahead at breakneck speeds.

“Where are we going Adam?”

“To the sanctuary of the Order.”

“The what?”  
  


 

Miles and Nathan were sitting out on the cliff face, while everybody else sat back.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t bother them Natalie?”

“Yes. I’ve already told you Yang. They want to settle things a bit more before heading back to Beacon.”

“Well I guess now is as good a time as any to let everybody know why this was such a big deal.” Blake said.

“Yeah, I would like to know why Nathan did try to beat Miles to a pulp.” Christy said as she sat down. Everybody else sat down in a circle, while Blake and Natalie sat in the center.

“It all started back in the tragedy that took place here” Natalie started. “Miles had attacked the invaders because he thought he could defeat them all and save his family. He did not succeed, and because of that, Nathan tried to attack them as well and ended up getting captured. I learned about this, and at the time, neither Miles nor Nathan knew that they were both captured that day. When Miles realized this he at first wanted to apologize to Nathan, but I said he shouldn’t not just because she knew how Nathan would react, but also we discovered something.”

“Yeah. Both Miles and Nathan told me their side of the story, and Natalie knew this as well. We met up and discussed this and noticed something was off. According to both of them, the White Fang attacked them. The only problem is, the attack took place almost a year before the White Fang turned from protestors to a small army. Me, Natalie, and Miles agreed to keep this between the three of us until we could figure out more to this confusing situation. But then that guy in red caused them to remember something yesterday. And then everything happened up until this point.”

“Well that’s great and all, but have you three figured out anything else since then? Like, who Adam was working for at the time?”

“I think the two of them know Jacob, but we aren’t going to figure anything out for a while. For now though, I think we can be content with the fact that they aren’t trying to kill each other anymore.”  


 

“So she was your teacher?”

“She was more than that. She was like a second mother to me and Natls.”

“I’m sorry you lost her.”

“We lost everything seven years ago. I’m just glad I didn’t add to the death toll of this place.”

“Yeah me too.” The two of them laughed at this.

“What do you remember about your family Miles?”

“Only that every single one of them was more honorable than I ever was. They worked hard, and did well in life. I was too lazy to decide what to do with my own life when I turned ten. I can’t even remember what our final argument was about. Something stupid probably.”

“At least you got to see them one last time. I was gone for half a year and when I got back, they were gone.”

“You got to say goodbye on a positive note. I’m not even sure what my parents or my brother thought of me before that night.” The two of them fell silent, and then looked over at each other again.

“So, what do we tell the others about him?”

“The guy with the buster sword? I’m not sure. Maybe we should wait until we know more about him.”

“I still can’t get him out of my head.”

“It’s hard not to. Since we got those memories back, they’ve been as fresh in my mind as if it just happened. And even though Adam was leading the operation, HE commanded such a presence that not just Adam, but even the guy in the red coat got down on one knee.”

“Who do you think he is?”

“Whoever he is, I think his endgame, whatever it is, might be ready to start.”

“How do you figure?”

“When we fought that Memoriare guy yesterday, there were three memories that escaped him during the fight. He only stopped the one that was heading straight for Brooklyn.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Either that memory is something that reveals some big secret, or it is something that she’s not allowed to know about herself. Maybe even both.”

“I don’t know. But the thing is, we need to be careful. For the sake of our friends, and for the sake of the world.”

“Yeah. How about we agree not to try and kill each other anymore?”

“That’s a promise for me to make. I don’t think you stand a chance against me one-on-one Watson.”

“Ooh, that’s a challenge Mr. Grover.” The two of them stood up and started walking back.

“Actually Miles, go ahead. There’s something I need to do first.”

“Okay. Take your time.” Nathan then turned and walked over to the edge of the cliff.

“The last time I said this, I said it filled with hate and anger in my heart. Let me do this properly this time.” Nathan then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Goodbye Ember. I’m heading off with my friends to save the world now.” Nathan then turned, and ran back to join his friends, with the sun rising behind him.  


 

**ROLL CREDITS**

 

  
  
Adam and Leo walked into a giant meeting room that was dimly lit.

“It would seem the rest of the council has already arrived.”

“This was to be expected Adam.”

“Lord Memoriare.”

“HE finished up early and decided to call the members in so that business could begin by the time you arrived.”

“So where is he?”

“Adam.”

“Lord Mortem.” Adam fell to one knee, as did all those who were standing in the room. “I am please to see you have returned at last.”

“Indeed. And who is this behind you?”

“This is Leo Odi, the one I spoke of to you back when we discovered the dragon.”

“Ah yes, the young idealist who has yet to fully understand power.”

“I have no idea who you are old man, but I am not working for some stupid human’s….” Adam immediately got up and placed his sword on Leo’s neck.

“Utter one more syllable and I will end you where you stand.”

“It’s all right Adam. Stand down. In time, this child will learn to obey. But first, did you bring what I desire?”

“Yes Lord Mortem. Here is the Fall Maiden.” Adam took the containment unit from Leo and placed it on a table that was emblazoned with a circle with four separate slices each containing a symbol of a season.

“Excellent work Adam. This brings us to two of the four we need.” A panel rose up from the table with another containment unit that unlike the one that contained the Fall Maiden, which glowed orange, this one glowed a pinkish red.

“Who are you, and what is this place?”

“Young man, Adam told me you needed more time before being invited here. But I guess it can’t be helped. My name is Zenoma Mortem, the supreme ruler of The Order of the Four Seasons, and soon, the master of Remnant.”


	17. Episode 2: Chapter 1: A Time of Dancing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 1 of Episode 2 of Order of Seasons

“Come on Nathan! We’re going to be late!”

“Sorry Natls, I’m just having trouble with this tie.”

“Yang’s already outside! You don’t want to keep her waiting do you?”

“Depends, does she have her gauntlets or no?” Suddenly there was a loud pounding on the door.

“I don’t think that makes any difference Nathan…..”

“Forget the tie. How do I look?”

“Like you’re getting strangled by your collar. Unbutton the top button and you should be good.” Natalie then opened the door and revealed Yang in a flowing yellow dress.

“Ready to go Nathan?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” He offered her his arm and she walked over and accepted it happily. They then walked out and started heading down the hallway, leaving Ruby and Natalie just standing back at the door.

“So Natls, did you get a date for the dance?”

“Nah, not this year Ruby. I’m not much of a….”

“Fancy, pantsy dancey girl” the two said in union. They then fist bumped each other and laughed.

“Shall we go then Ms. Rose?”

“Let’s Ms. Grover.”  


 

  
As they headed down the stairs, they met Jaune and Pyrrha at the doors, about to head outside.

“Yang, you look great!”

“Aw, thanks Pyrrha! You do too!”

“And Ruby and Natalie! You two are looking gorgeous tonight!”

“Yeah, I still have no idea how Weiss fights in these.” Ruby said as she tried to keep her balance.

“Wait, those are legit heels Weiss fights in?" Natalie said extremely surprised.  "I thought they were some weird form of decoration or something!” Everybody started laughing at Natalie’s remark, and headed outside.

“By the way, where’s everybody else Jaune?” Natalie asked walking up next to him.

“Well, Weiss is already at the dance because she organized the event again this year and Neptune isn’t in town to dance with her, Ren and Nora are meeting us at the Ballroom, and we are supposed to meet up with everybody else at the statue.”

“Who all are we expecting?”

“At this point, Evan, Christy, Ty, Jacob, Brooklyn, Blake and Miles.”

“Wait, Miles is joining us tonight? I figured he would have been all Miles-y and just gone off to practice in the amphitheater.”

“According to Blake, she’s going to get him to the dance no matter how much he might complain.”

“Oh, so that’s why she ran into our room and dragged him to her room on such short notice.”

“Precisely Natls. Now let’s see if she succeeded or not.”

 

 

“You look great tonight.”

“Look who’s talking beautiful.” Christy smiled at Evan’s compliment and the two gave each other a quick kiss before noticing that some of the others were approaching.

“How you two lovebirds doing?”

“We’re doing just fantastic Ty.” Evan said shaking his hand. “And I see you brought your teammates along.”

“Jacob, I swear if you or anybody else says we should dance together tonight, I’m going to kill them and then I’m going to kill you!”

“Keep me off the kill list Brooklyn. You may need my assistance in the disposing of the bodies.”

“Good point, good point.”

“Yeah, you can see my teammates are just so pleasant to be around.” Christy said rolling her eyes.

“They always plotting murder like this?” Evan asked.

“Well Ty I’m sure plots murder every single day, but Jacob and Brooklyn only do it when it’s their dignity or relationship status in question.”

“She’s not wrong about Brooklyn and Jacob, the only thing different is that I don’t plot murders, I just go out and fulfill them to a point.” Ty said with a smirk on his face.

“Now I can see why you and Miles worked so well together before coming to this school.” They all got a chuckle out of this and noticed that some of the others were approaching.

“Oh my gosh, Yang! You look beautiful!”

“Thanks Christy! You look gorgeous as well!”

“You like it? I got some help from Weiss.”

“Yeah, I managed to get this one pretty cheap in downtown Vale last week. It helps when you helped save an entire city from a maniac.”

“Yeah, I guess it does. And Natalie and Ruby! Oh! You look wonderful!”

“All right, all right. Don’t patronize me Christy.” Ruby said as she attempted to keep her balance.

“I’m not! You both look great! And you Pyrrha! That design, Honey Brand Clothes, am I right?”

“Yeah. I’ve got some good connections back in Mistral. This was a hassle to get, don’t get me wrong, but I daresay it’s all worth it even though I only get to wear it about once or twice a year.”

“Well it looks great nonetheless. Mine is just an old white dress my mom used to wear. I mean sure, Weiss helped give it some new life, but still.”

“It looks great Christy! In a school where most of the dresses are white, this one has a flow and elegance to it. I’m honestly kind of envious.”

“Thanks Pyrrha. Now then, where are Miles and Blake?”

“Not sure” Natalie said stepping forward. “We assumed they would be here around the same time we got here.”

“Ah! There they are!” Everybody looked where Evan was pointing, and were surprised to not just simply see Miles and Blake together, that much had become expected, but the fact that Blake wasn’t dragging Miles to the dance.

“Well, given how much you fought against this dance all week Miles, I’m surprised to see you here honestly.” Natalie said.

“Yeah, well I guess I had to find some kind of middle ground at some point.”

“What kind of middle ground?”

“That’s what this cooler is for.” Miles said as he revealed a small cooler that was sealed shut.

“Look, I love puns as much as Nathan here, but pranks? I didn’t think you would be the guy to try and pull this off Watson.” Yang said with a concerned look on her face.

“Pranks? What are you talking about Yang?”

“Well, if it’s not a prank, what’s in the cooler?”

“Ice cream” Miles opened up the cooler revealing a bunch of ice cream bars.

“Why do you have ice cream Miles?”

“Look, you and Nathan are going to be dancing all evening most likely, as well as a lot of other people among our number. This is for all of us who don’t have a date and are just standing around doing nothing at the dance.”

“Says the guy who’s going with somebody?” Natalie said mockingly.

“Look Natls, both Miles and I don’t really care about the dance. But I insisted that we at least go for a little bit just so people don’t annoy us about it later on down the line.”

“Okay, the logic you two run on makes no sense. You two are clearly dating but constantly deny it, you don’t want to dance and yet dance anyways, and you made ice cream why?”

“Firstly, we aren’t dating. Secondly, this is what Blake requested as payment for her helping me make the ice cream and not blowing up the dorm kitchen, and thirdly, since you, Ruby and a few other friends of ours don’t have dates, the ice cream will make sense in time.”

“Fine. Keep your completely confusing relationship between yourselves. Shall we go?”

“I thought nobody was ever going to say that.”  
  


 

The dance was moving along with no problems whatsoever. Weiss had convinced the faculty to let the school orchestra play the music in place of letting the Daft Punk knock offs run the music this year despite the appeals by their fans to let them DJ the event. She had Cardin and his team doing some of the lesser jobs because they were serving their “detention” for harassing Velvet again and being caught by Professor Oobleck. Keeping an eye on them all as well as helping put up the final banners was Beanie.

“Beanie! The banner is upside down again!”

“My bad Weiss. Cardin! Russel! Help me out with this!” Weiss simply sighed as the bullies flipped the banner to its correct position. She then noticed her friends entering and walked over to greet them.

“I’m glad to see everybody managed to make it tonight! Even our friend Miles! And going with Blake no less!”

“Yeah, another one of their excuses trying to dodge the fact that they’re totally dating.” Yang said with a smile.

“So what’s the excuse this time?”

“Apparently Blake helped Miles make ice cream or something.”

“Ice cream?”

“Yes Weiss." Miles said, getting tired of having to explain himself.  "As she said, we made ice cream. And if you’d like, in about an hour we will be leaving to enjoy said ice cream. Would you care to join us?”

“I would, but I’ve got to run the dance.”

“Very well then. Natalie? Ruby? What do you say? After an hour we blow this popsicle stand?”

“Eh, I’ve got nothing better to do.”

“I’m in so long as I can change into my hood beforehand.”

“By all means. Now then,” the music started to play and all those who had already arrived started dancing with their partners. Miles then turned and bowed offering Blake a hand. “Ms. Belladonna, may I have this dance?

“Yes, yes you may” Blake said with a smile as she accepted Miles’ hand. The two of them headed out to the dance floor and began dancing in perfect rhythm.

“They are so in love with each other.” Natalie said as she rolled her eyes.

“Yep” everybody said in unison. With that out of the way, Nathan and Yang took to the dance floor, as did Evan and Christy, Jaune and Pyrrha, and then Ren and Nora followed in suit having joined them moments ago. Leaving everybody without dates to awkwardly move towards the punch bowl and just stand there staring at all their friends dancing. Ruby then filled up a glass and raised it high.

“To the socially awkward.” Everybody smiled, filled their own glasses, and drank to Ruby’s toast.

“At least they’re all having fun.” Ty said with a smile.

“Yeah, this night always feels good despite not having a date for the second straight year.”

“Please. At least you made it to the dance without hiding in your own closet because you’re afraid of going out in public in a dress.” Natalie said as she started turning half invisible from embarrassment.

“Natalie, you’ve got to learn how to overcome this fear of yours. The Vytal Festival re-issue is a few months from now and if your team qualifies, then you’ll be fighting in front of the entire world.”

“Ugh, thanks for reminding me Jacob.”

“Give the kid some space Jacob. After all, she is the leader of their team. She’s handled herself in far more demanding situations.”

“Brooklyn’s not wrong.” Ty said taking another sip. “Plus she managed to keep her head on straight when two of her teammates, one of them her brother, tried to kill each other three months ago.”

“Yeah, that was a bit of a crazy time.” As the dance went on, the music continued to be about as bland and boring as they would have expected from Weiss’ playlist.

“I swear, we’ve been here for almost an hour and I think I have heard the same song at least twice.” Brooklyn groaned as she slouched in one of the nearby chairs.

“I’ll have you know that the song in question is actually a composition from one of Atlas’ most esteemed composers that hasn’t been released to the public yet!” Weiss said as she stormed over to the punch bowl group.

“Oh, I’m Weiss. I get nice things that only I like because I’m rich.” Everybody started laughing at Brooklyn’s impression of the Ice Queen.

“Yes well, we can’t all be fans of fine music.”

“Eh, I’ll stick with Casey Williams." Ruby said with a smile.  "Oh yeah, that reminds me Natls, did you get the playlist of her stuff I sent you?”

“Yeah. Me and my brother have been loving it!”

“Sweet!”

“Everyone’s a critic I guess.” Everybody looked up to see Miles and Blake approaching the group. “Well, I’ve paid my debt, shall we go?”

“I’m in.” Blake said. “Anybody else want to leave this party?”

“I think I’ll stick around for a bit longer.” Jacob said. “What about you Brooklyn?”

“I actually think I’m going to join them. Have fun here Jacob.”

“Well all right then. Anybody else want in or out? Ty? You in?”

“Yeah, I guess I’ll see what you two lovebirds have got cooked up for this after party.”

“By gosh, for the millionth time…” 

“WE AREN’T DATING!” they both said in union.

“Yeah, keep telling yourselves that.”  


 

  
As they continued to walk, it became clear what their destination was.

“Miles, why are we going to Beacon Tower?”

“Why else Ruby? To eat this ice cream.”

“Why would we eat ice cream in front of Beacon Tower when we could sit out on the airship docks?”

“Who said anything about eating ice cream in FRONT of the tower?” Ruby tilted her head in confusion at Miles’ statement.

“Ah. We’re here. All right. Everybody, form a circle and link arms.”

“Uh, why are we doing this?”

“We’re doing Flight Protocol Natls.”

“Aha. Everybody, do as Miles says.” Not understanding what was happening, everybody linked arms.

“All right. Everybody, I can’t stress this enough. Don’t panic.”

“Oh please, with you around, there’s no reason to panic whatsoever.”

“Save the commentary Ty, and hold on.” Then, all of a sudden they started flying straight up the side of the tower! But to all of them, it felt like they were falling. Like they had jumped off a cliff and were falling straight down instead of straight up. As they approached the top ledge of the tower, the started slowing down and then floated right onto the ledge.

“Now then, isn’t this view much better than the one down by the airship docks?” Nobody answered him as they were still trying to catch their breath

“Next time Miles, just tell us outright what you’re going to do please?”

“I could Brooklyn, but where’s the fun in that? Now then, who’s up for some ice cream?” As Miles said this, he opened up the cooler and handed out a bunch of light blue ice cream bars.

“What the heck is this Miles?” Natalie asked tilting her head to the side.

“Sea salt ice cream. Blake and I made enough for everybody to have two. And if people don’t want two, then we grabbed other ice cream bars of everybody’s favorite flavors.”

“You made all those sea salt bars and all those other flavors Miles?”

“Well I made the sea salt bars Natls, but everything else we just got from the convenience store here on campus.”

“Ah. That makes sense now.”

“Now then, would everybody care for some ice cream?” Miles started handing out a bunch of sea salt ice cream bars to everybody. As they all sat down on the edge of the tower looking out over the school, everybody began to dig in.

“So, what does everybody think?”

“I like it!” Ruby said with a smile as she dug in.

“Pretty good Watson, but I think I’ll pass on seconds for tonight.” Ty said after a few bites.

“Not bad Miles. I think I’ll have a second.” Brooklyn said.

“It’s sweet, but kind of salty too.”

“Natls, that’s not really an answer.”

“It’s good. Maybe not my favorite flavor, but good nonetheless.”

“Yeah, when Miles and I were originally making these, I honestly thought he was adding too much sea salt, but it tastes really good as far as the salty-sweet content.” Blake said with a smile.

“What, so you’re implying that everything else is hit or miss?” Miles said with a joking grin.

“I didn’t say that!”

“Careful Blake, you made these just as much as I did!”

“Yeah, but you almost burned the kitchen down before I stepped in!”

“I would continue this FRIENDLY BANTER Blake, but I fear that if we keep talking, we are going to give the team leaders more material to work with.” Blake peeked past Miles to see that Ruby and Natalie were recording the conversation on their Scrolls, giggling while doing so.

“So….” Blake said awkwardly as she continued to eat her ice cream. “Any idea when the other teams are supposed to get here from the other academies?”

“No idea.” Ty said opening up one of the alternate ice cream options. “We haven’t even begun the qualification tournament here yet, so it’s a safe bet the other schools haven’t either. Besides, I’ve heard that the qualifying rounds are being recorded by hand on pen and paper to avoid any hacked-in fighters like Cinder and her team last year.”

“Yeah. Plus this isn’t a Vytal Festival year but just a tournament to help fix some of the damage done by the attacks of last year. There aren’t going to be any fairgrounds or transfer students for a semester this time around. Heck, I’ve even heard rumors that once a team is eliminated, they’re just going to be shipped straight out of Vale and back to their own kingdom for the rest of the tournament.”

“Well that stinks. Maybe we’ll be able to see Sun and his team while they’re in town before the tournament starts.”

“That’s a big if Blake” Miles said taking another bite of ice cream. “They have to qualify first. As do all of us. Nothing’s been set in stone.”

“Well I’m not planning on slacking off anytime soon.”

“Excellent. Now then, enough dwelling on things to come. I made this ice cream so we could relax tonight, and by gosh we are going to do just that.”

“I thought you guys were never going to shut up” Ruby said with a smile as she took another bite of ice cream. Not much else was said amongst their number that night, as they just enjoyed a cloudless moonlit sky.  
  


 

“So Neptune turned you down because he can’t dance?” Jacob asked confusingly.

“Yep. You can see why that would be such a big deal for me.”

“You? A dancer? I know you’re a singer, but a dancer as well?”

“Well, my father always had this idea that “A Schnee must be the best in everything. Nothing less.”

“Yeesh. And I thought my parents were over-bearing.” Suddenly, Jacob’s Scroll went off. “Well, speak of the devil and he shall appear.” He quickly touched the screen and silenced his phone.

“You sure you want to shrug him off like that Jacob?”

“I don’t really care. My parents have been trying to tell me what to do all my life. I think this time around, I’ll make my own decisions.”

“Again, are you sure? I know what it’s like to always feel like you need to impress your parents and it can be a bit much at times, but you shouldn’t cut ties with them completely.”

“It’s fine Weiss. This was just my father’s weekly attempt to try and convince me that I should transfer schools once the tournament is over.”

“Transfer? Why?”

“He has this weird idea that in order to be successful in life, I have to study all the kingdoms and how they work.”

“Huh. My father just brought in teachers and technology from the other kingdoms to teach me at a young age. Heck, I didn’t even go to combat school. I just was trained by robots and instructors from the vast reaches of my father’s company.”

“Well, at least your father let you do what you wished.”

“Who said he did? When I left to attend school here at Beacon, he was furious. It took not just my good grades, but also the fact that I managed to survive the Cinder Fall incident without any major injuries. And even still, he checks in on me every so often. I might not be who he wants me to be, but I think he’s starting to understand that. It’s just going to take some time.”

“Yeah, I just wish my parents were like that.”

“Look Jacob, your birth family might not be so willing to help you or care about you, but look out there” Weiss said as she pointed to their dancing friends.

“I’ve learned to care for each and every one of these people like they are my family, and they feel the same about me. I know we aren’t going to be together forever, but our bond is something that we will keep for all time.”

“Wow. That sounded like something either Professor Ozpin would say or something Miles would say when he’s in one of his intellectual moods.”

“Hey, I take all of that very seriously!”

“I don’t doubt that Weiss. It’s just not something a lot of people say.”

“Well in our line of work, we don’t do much of what most normal people do on a day to day basis.”

“True enough. Besides, there is something I think I’ve gained here that I never could have gained if I followed the path my parents wanted me to follow.”

“What’s that?”

“Having all these guys as friends. Heck, I only strayed from their path because of them.”

“Yeah. They’re good people. I’m happy I know them.”  


 

“He’s still not answering.”

“Why won’t he answer? I would figure that after defeating Pyrrha, he would look to you for approval like he always had in the past.”

“Perhaps the Nikos child did something to our son’s mindset that made him wish to stray from our control.”

“What do you suggest we do then Peter?”

“We need to shorten the leash. Perhaps even tighten it.”

“Can we? I mean, we held him to the point of suffocation back when he was a child.”

“Aurora, we held him under our thumb while he was growing up, yes. And for all intents and purposes, he should have been able to comprehend by the time he became an adult not to ignore us. However, something has happened to him that has caused him to grow a rebellious nature. Most likely, he has plans on abandoning our teachings for the sake of following his own path.”

“Most people of that age do try to break free of their parents hold. Maybe we should let him fly free for a little longer?”

“No. With the recovery of the Fall Maiden’s aura, Lord Mortem has begun to take steps towards gaining both Spring and Winter under his thumb as well. I fear that unless we control our son now, he may be left out to burn in the fire when the endgame begins.”

“He wouldn’t let our son die, would he?”

“There are several members with loved ones out there who aren’t a part of the Order, and they are all going to burn. And they are going to burn because they don’t believe in our cause. Jacob however, we can still control him. We can still manipulate him. We can still save him. So long as he joins us, there should be no problem.”

“All right then. I guess we have a plan. But first, we should get to the meeting. Shall we go?”

“Of course my darling.” With that said, Peter picked up his ring and walked over to the family car. The two sat down and then placed their rings into a small console.

“WELCOME, PETER STROHL. WELCOME, AURORA STROHL. STAND BY FOR TRANSPORT TO MEETING.” As soon as the computer finished, the car started up and drove off into the night.


	18. Episode 2: Chapter 2: Qualify

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 of Episode 2 of Order of Seasons

Natalie quickly spun around and blocked an incoming attack from Aquaria’s harpoon, and then rushed over to engage her in close quarters. Aquaria was quickly reeling the spear portion of the harpoon back in, but not fast enough as Natalie launched her across the stage and into the wall. The buzzer sounded signaling the ring-out, meaning that Team WATR was down to only three members. Natalie quickly rushed over to her brother’s side as he was battling against Waris and her trident. A quick move by Nathan caused Waris to miss her target with a lunge and instead plant her weapon right into the ground, leaving her wide open for an attack. Nathan quickly took his clubs and landed a blow on Waris’ face that sent her up into the air and right into the other half of Blue Wavecrest as Natalie leapt right over Nathan and took Waris with her and threw her into one of the mountain ranges that had spawned from the map. As soon as she landed, she heard another buzzer sound for her opponent’s defeat. She pumped her fist in the air in celebration and then quickly landed about twenty yards from where Miles and Evan were going toe to toe with the other two opponents, Revrum and Tupp. Miles was engaging Tupp with his nunchucks, while Evan was engaged with Revrum’s twin sai. Revrum attempted to disarm Evan by latching his two sai onto Evan’s spear, but as he did so, Evan did a quick twist with his right arm to throw Revrum off balance leaving him wide open for a quick hit from his gauntlet to knock him off balance. Nathan looked up at the screen and realized that Revrum hadn’t fallen below the 15% threshold yet, so he quickly threw one of his clubs and hit Revrum right in the stomach, finishing off the little aura he had left. Meanwhile, Miles was busy going back and forth with Tupp’s nunchucks. It seemed that Miles had the upper hand, but a quick flick of his weapons and Tupp knocked Miles’ white sword out of his hand. He then started gaining more ground, as it was clear that Miles wasn’t as skilled with just one sword as he was with two. But before any serious damage could be done, Natalie started blasting several rounds at Tupp to keep him from advancing, Evan ran over to stall him, while Nathan grabbed Miles’ sword and threw it back to him.

“I could’ve gotten it myself Grover.”

“Yeah, but your aura is a bit weak now. Better safe than sorry.”

“Fair enough.” With that said, Miles rushed in and did a quick X-slash and reduced Tupp’s aura to 3%, ending the match. Then, a hologram of Professor Ozpin appeared in the middle of the battlefield.

“Congratulations Team NEMN. You have officially qualified for the Vytal festival re-issue, now newly named, The Restoration Tournament.” As soon as he said those words, everybody in Team NEMN went ecstatic. They started hugging each other, pumped their fists in the air, and even danced a little bit. As they made their way off the battlefield, they got back up into the stands with their friends.

“Awesome job guys!” Yang said as she gave Nathan a huge hug.

“You guys really handled yourselves well out there!” Weiss said as she shook Evan’s hand.

“Yeah, it was no sweat.” Miles said as he sat down.

“Says the guy who literally had to be saved by their team leader at the very end?” Blake joked as she gave Miles a punch in the shoulder. Everybody laughed at this, and even Miles cracked a smile.

“Well, you’re not wrong.” Miles said as everybody else sat down. Then Professor Oobleck came over the loudspeaker and said,

“The next qualifying match will be Team JCTB VS Team CFVY. Please report to the staging area for your next battle.” Some cheering rose up from the crowd, while Miles leaned over to Nathan.

“Talk to me Grover. I know our friends lineup and strategies forwards and backwards, but what can we expect from CFVY?”

“Well from what I’ve gathered, they seem like a very power oriented team. Coco and Yatsuhashi both provide pure brawn with little speed, while Fox and Velvet while packing a punch, clearly prefer agility over pure power. And even still, Velvet has a huge advantage with not just her weapons technology, but also her ability to mimic other fighter’s styles. For example, lets say that my fighting style is great against fighters like Ty, but against Christy I would be a sitting duck. Velvet could take a photo of Christy’s weapons, mimic them with her camera box, and then step for step, mimic Christy’s movements. I’m honestly not sure how Jacob and company are going to get past that.”

“Well if there’s one thing I’ve noticed that’s good about Team JCTB, it’s that they communicate very well. That should help them formulate a good plan.” Miles said leaning back in his chair. Meanwhile, on the battlefield, the teams had lined up and the two biomes had been selected. The geyser biome and the lava biome.

“Well this is just great.” Christy groaned.

“It’s fine Christy.” Jacob said as he adjusted his knives. “I’ve done some research on these biomes, and I think I might have an idea to help maximize your abilities. We’ve got the lava biome right behind us, and if they force us back there, that’s not the best situation. We need to force them into the geyser fields.”

“I’m on it.” Ty said with confidence as he drew his sword. The countdown began and everybody got in their ready positions. As soon as the horn sounded, Ty morphed his sword into bazooka form and started unloading on Team CFVY. They instantly jumped backwards into the geyser fields, slightly drifting apart while doing so. As soon as they started to drift apart, Team JCTB began advancing into battle. Coco realized they were going to be pinned unless they did something, so she quickly morphed her weapon into gatling gun form and opened fire on her opponents.

“Everybody line up behind Ty!” Jacob yelled as he moved out of the way of the oncoming barrage. Everybody did as instructed and Ty took the full force of Coco’s weaponry, and continued to move forward.

“Velvet! Flank them!” Coco yelled to her teammate, which she responded by activating her weapon and mimicked Coco’s weapon and ran over to the left and tried to force them to spread out. But just as she started firing, Brooklyn had already morphed her weapon into shield form and was keeping Velvet’s copy at bay. As soon as they made it onto the outskirts of the geyser fields, Jacob took one of his knives out and started examining the ground.

“Brooklyn, keep Velvet distracted. Christy, get ready to take Fox down. Ty, keep me covered until I find what I’m looking for.” With that said, Brooklyn rushed towards Velvet with her shield still up. Velvet realized that she wasn’t going to gain any ground in ranged combat, so she quickly shifted her weapon into the exact copy of Yatsuhashi’s weapon and smashed the hologram sword right into Brooklyn’s shield, causing a few geysers to go off in the process. Meanwhile, Jacob was still scouring the ground while Ty was still taking most of the punishment from Coco’s attacks.

“Jacob, I hate to bother you with whatever you are doing, but I can’t keep this up forever before I start taking serious damage.”

“Almost found it, there!” As soon as he said this, Jacob took the knife in his hand and stabbed it right into the ground. “All right then, make sure this knife doesn’t come out of the ground until I say so.”

“And why does that matter so much?”

“Just trust me on this Ty! Now then, go and take care of Yatsuhashi. Christy and I will distract Fox and Coco for a few minutes. Brooklyn! Just keep doing what you’re doing!”

“Yeah, got no other options at this point!” Brooklyn yelled as she parried another large strike from Velvet, who was now wielding Nathan’s billy clubs.

 

 

“You know, it’s really impressive.” Nathan said while watching Velvet’s movements intently.

“What do you mean?” Miles asked looking away from the action for a few seconds.

“Well, the thing is that normally, when somebody tries to copy somebody else’s movements or rhythm, I can usually tell if they are faking it. But with Velvet, she completely mimics everybody to perfection. When she was mimicking Yatsuhashi, I couldn’t tell who was who for a split second.”

“Huh. Impressive. Do you think there are any flaws in her battle plan?”

“Not that I can see from up here.”  
  


Jacob and Christy continued to dodge the constant barrage of bullets from Coco’s gun as well as the constant attacks by Fox. Meanwhile, Ty and Yatsuhashi were going toe-to-toe, trading blows, but it was clear that tanking all the shots from Coco earlier meant that he was almost down to basic aura defenses. Meanwhile, Brooklyn was clearly struggling with Velvet who was constantly changing between weapons to keep her off balance.

“Jacob, if you’ve got a grand plan, I think we need it now!” Brooklyn yelled as she attempted to block the copy of Pyrrha’s weapon.

“Almost time. Give it another minute.”

“WE DON’T HAVE A MINUTE!” Brooklyn yelled again before getting smashed across the stage towards the center as Velvet had switched to Nora’s hammer. Jacob quickly looked up at the board and saw that Brooklyn was almost to the danger zone for aura level, Ty was starting to take serious damage, and he knew that he and Christy couldn’t dodge the tag team onslaught for much longer.

“Fine! Christy! Pull the knife!” Christy didn’t even look back to acknowledge his call. She just jumped straight back to the knife and pulled it out of the ground. As a direct result, all of a sudden all the geysers went off at once creating a giant field of steam.

“Christy, take down everybody you can as quickly as possible.” Christy nodded at her leaders request, and walked right into the giant field of mist. Ty and Yatsuhashi didn’t really change their course of action that much as they were already engaged in close quarters combat. However, both Coco and Fox were completely blind. Coco tried to blast a few rounds into thin air, but nothing changed as the mist still lingered over the battlefield. She then decided the best course of action would be to work her way over to Yatsuhashi and see if he could use his sword as a giant fan to blow away the steam. But before she took three steps, right in front of her appeared almost out of nowhere, Christy; using swift movements to disarm Coco and deplete whatever aura she had down to about 7%. The buzzer sounded signaling that the team leader had fallen, causing Fox to start panicing. He quickly started running as fast as he could to the center of the arena to get out of the smoke screen, but was almost knocked right back into it when Brooklyn was sent flying from one of Velvet’s attacks, this time with Yang’s gauntlets. Fox noticed that Brooklyn was taking her time getting up, and raised his weapons to deal the final blow, but before he could swing his arms down, something latched on to his weapons. He turned to see Jacob with his sword hooked in the crevice of his own weapons. Fox quickly pulled his weapons out of the lock and took a step back and got ready to face off against his new opponent. The two of them traded blows at amazing speeds, neither of them really having any form of an advantage. Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, Velvet got a step ahead of Brooklyn and rushed straight towards Jacob mimicking Ruby’s scythe and speed. However, right before she landed a huge hit on Jacob, Brooklyn jumped in the way of the incoming attack, and took the strike full force. The strike sent her flying back into the smokescreen, and dropped her aura levels down to about 2%, knocking her out. Jacob realized this and decided to enter his time dilation state. He quickly got around behind Fox, and did a quick one-two slice and knocked him down with one last swipe to his legs. The buzzer sounded signaling that he was out of the competition. Velvet realized that she was losing teammates, so she quickly jumped back away from Jacob, switched to Weiss’ weapon, and launched a wind glyph to blow away the steam from the geysers. When it finally cleared, Christy was on the receiving end of a punch from Yatsuhashi, knocking her out, but in turn, Yatsuhashi was also left wide open, giving Ty the chance to knock out his opponent, giving his team the edge. Ty walked over to Jacob, and Velvet looked at her two opponents realizing that she was down to her last legs. She decided to try and balance the tables by mimicking Ty’s weapon in sword form. Ty rolled his eyes, and rushed straight at Velvet, clashing blades. There was a large burst of energy from the clash, but a split second afterwards, Velvet was sent flying backwards out of the ring and into the force field, resulting in a ring-out.

“Yeah, you may be able to copy my weapons, but pure strength is something that comes naturally for me.” Ty said in triumph as he slammed his sword into the ground in victory, and then went over to help Brooklyn up. Jacob sheathed his sword, and walked over to get Christy back to her feet. The crowd cheered as Professor Ozpin gave Team JCTB the right to participate in the tournament and they left the arena. As they made their way to the stands, they got applause and support from their friends.

“Good work out there Jacob. You did good leading your team.”

“Debatable, but thanks Pyrrha.” Jacob said as he sat down.

“Next up, we have Team CRDL facing off against Team JNPR.” Professor Oobleck announced. As Team JNPR made their way down into the arena, everybody got excited.

“Yeah!” Natalie yelled in anticipation. “This is going to be awesome!”  
  


 

Everybody started pouring out of the arena, completely dumbfounded.

“I can’t believe they won that fight in like thirty seconds.” Evan said in complete disbelief.

“Yeah.” Nathan nodded in agreement. “Hey Miles, you know off the top of your head what the record is for fastest victory?”

“I don’t actually. Blake?”

“If I remember right, it was recorded at 33.02 seconds on the dot.”

“Yeesh. Overkill much?”


	19. Episode 2: Chapter 3: hesitation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 of Episode 2 of Order of Seasons

The sun was hiding behind several layers of clouds that morning, but that didn’t stop Miles from practicing in the amphitheater. He was working with his white sword and was doing some routines that Weiss had suggested he try out when he was using a single blade. As he continued to practice, he realized that the clouds were beginning to look much more menacing. Deciding to not worry about it, Miles continued to practice. But then, while he was in the middle of one of the routines he was working on, it started pouring down rain, and he had forgotten to activate the force field to keep it out. He was getting drenched pretty quickly, but he still continued to practice. As time went on, it became harder and harder for him to grip the sword. All of a sudden, he heard the generators turn on and the force field become active.

“You know, it doesn’t do you any good to practice if you can’t even perfect the routine in normal conditions.” Miles turned to see where the new voice was coming from and saw Blake had walked in having turned on the force field herself.

“How long have you been standing there?”

“Honestly, I just got here. You?”

“I’ve been here for about an hour now. I kept practicing in the rain because if I can master it with an obstacle in my path, then doing it normally would be no problem for me at all.” As he said this, he started doing another routine with his sword, but halfway through, the sword slipped out of his hand and clattered to the ground in embarrassing fashion. Blake started laughing as soon as the sword hit the floor.

“You need a towel Mr. over-achiever?”

“I guess a towel would be helpful.”  
  
  
  
  
Natalie was a bit slow to get up this morning, as she had been busy finishing a paper for Professor Port the night before. As she got up she saw her brother staring intently at his Scroll.

“What’s so fascinating big brother?”

“My new outfit just landed in Vale. The delivery company website says that it should be here this afternoon sometime!”

“New outfit? Why the sudden change?”

“I figured that my outfit now is just me trying to live in the past. Also, it doesn’t look that great having worn it for almost five years now. It’s high time for a change.”

“Well all right then. I’m going to get some breakfast, you want to come with me?”

“I would Natls, but Yang and I already had breakfast earlier, and I think the two of us are going to head over to the amphitheater in a bit to do some training.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“I’ll go with you. I’m starving.” Natalie looked down and realized that Evan was still sitting in his bed.

“I thought you and Christy got breakfast together every morning?”

“We usually do, but she texted me and said she was feeling a bit under the weather today and to get breakfast without her.”

“Is she coming down with a fever or something?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Since she is a healer, she’s always able to pretty much force it out of her system in like two hours. But it does hit her pretty hard however, so I’m not going to risk catching whatever she has.”

“A long and complicated reason, but okay. Let’s go.” Natalie quickly changed into her hood, Evan into his uniform, and the two of them headed off to the cafeteria.  


“Professor Ozpin, the quarterly reports are in.”

“Thank you Beanie. Just place them on my desk.”

“Yes sir.” Beanie placed his Scroll on Professor Ozpin’s desk as instructed, and pushed the button to transfer the files onto his desk itself. “Professor Ozpin, I had a question I wanted to ask you.”

“Go right ahead Beanie.”

“Why did you let Nathan and Natalie into this school for free?”

“Because I had a few spare scholarships lying around and it seemed like they could use a place to stay.”

“Forgive me for saying so sir, but that’s a load of sh….”

“Beanie! I will not tolerate that kind of language in here!”

“I’m sorry sir. It’s just that I saw the quarterly reports. You only had one scholarship to spare. And you gave it to Nathan. And you didn’t even have the scholarship last year for Ruby Rose. Nor Natalie Grover. You just simply let them in and now our school has been in the red ever since the school year started. Now again I want to know, why did this happen.”

“You know, I expected this confrontation to come from Glynda to be perfectly honest with you.”

“She trusts you with her life. However, I’m just an intern student and I have only known you for two years now. Plus, these guys are my friends. I would like to know why you made this decision.” Professor Ozpin looked at Beanie, looked at the quarterly reports, then got up and poured himself a cup of coffee.

“Would you like a cup?”  


Miles finally finished toweling off and sat down next to Blake.

“So what are you doing here so early in the morning?” Miles asked as he threw the towel into the hamper.

“I was planning on doing some solo training, but it seems like you beat me to the punch. Want to work on our tag team skills?”

“Why? There’s a good chance we could be fighting each other in a few weeks. Wouldn’t it be best to just simply keep strategies between teams?”

“Really? I offer you help with practice and you get all paranoid on me?”

“Sorry. I’ve just got future events on my mind.”

“Look Miles, you have to learn how to just be willing to just take help from your friends.”

“I know, I’ve gotten better.”

“I know that too. But just so you know, despite Yang and the Grover siblings bugging us constantly, I want to take whatever we are to a place where we can just trust each other without you constantly just fixating on the mission instead of us.” There was a bit of an awkward silence for a few seconds.

“I guess you’ve got me there. I just feel like that after almost everything I’ve been through, I guess I’ve moved towards the idea of focusing on the task at hand rather than the people around me. I’ve gotten better, but I still have a way to go to really understand what truly needs to be done.”

“It’s not that complicated. All you have to do is just learn to put your friends first.”

“I do. Heck, I’ve done so ever since Nathan almost re-configured my face.”

“Really? I thought it was when you got saved by Natls back in the Emerald Forest.”

“Maybe. Actually, I think it really all started back when I first met the kid.”

  
  
  
Natalie and Evan finished walking through the buffet line at the cafeteria and sat down. Nobody else they knew were there that morning, so they just sat next to the window. Not much was said as they took the first few bites.

“Okay, clearly something is bugging you today.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Because usually I’m the one that hardly ever says anything.” Evan said with a smile. “Want to tell me what’s on your mind fearless leader?”

“Oh so now you’re stealing Miles’ jokes?”

“Hey, so long as the shoe fits.” Natalie sighed as she realized that Evan wasn’t going to let this go anytime soon.

“It’s just that, I think Miles should have been the leader of Team NEMN. Not me.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Well whenever we are in battle or making big decisions, he always has the first and best solution. He’s the guy who is always making the important decisions. He’s the guy who always knows what to do. I think Ozpin made a mistake.” There was a bit of a silence once again as Evan wasn’t entirely sure what to say.

“Evan, you can’t deny that Miles is the more tactical person amongst our number. Wouldn’t that be a better fit than me just standing around doing nothing?”

“Actually, I don’t think you do nothing. I think you are exactly what this team needs in order to move forward.”  
  
  
  
“Beanie, I don’t expect you to see everything the way I do. We are only human, and we can’t see the future. However, what matters is that we understand what the situation is and how we go about making sure that however terrible the situation is, it is prevented.”

“Okay, that has absolutely nothing to do with why you gave Ruby and Natalie full rides to this school.”

“I can only reveal so much, but there is a darkness in this world that is sleeping in a place beyond this reality. And I believe that the way to combat this darkness is through a simple, pure soul. That is why I chose Ruby initially. And she performed wonderfully. She saved us all from Cinder’s attack a year ago now, and she continues to grow as a good team leader.”

“Okay, perhaps Ruby has proven herself, but Natalie is practically doing nothing. Do you really think that she has a purpose or something?”

“Like I said before, it is the future that lies beyond my sight.”  
  
  
  
“The thing is, when I first met Natls, I saw something in her eyes that reminded me of something.”

“Yeah, you mentioned that to me the night we were out on the balcony.”

“I did. But I never really thought as to why she made me change my way of thinking about this line of work. Ever since that day, I’ve always had it in my head that the mission is to come first, and everything else is just background noise. I felt like I didn’t have any room for friends or a normal life. I believed that I was just another cog in the big machine that kept the world a safe place.”

“That’s kind of a somber way of thinking.”

“Yeah. But I didn’t use to be like that. I used to be a kid with dreams of honor and glory. Just dreaming of a better future and working towards it. Things were a lot simpler back when we were younger. And then, I guess I just grew up.”

“But clearly things have changed for you. What do you think caused it? You haven’t really gotten to the point you’ve been trying to make.”

“I’m getting to that. Just give me a minute. The thing is, when I first met you, I thought it would be interesting to try and prove my point: that the mission matters above all else. And then I met Natalie. I almost blew her to pieces, and she just gave me this death glare that not only made me intrigued, but also made me remember who I used to be. Just somebody filled with so much hope and willing to fight for it despite everything that had happened to this point in life. And then again, when we were in the Emerald Forest, she saved my life instead of destroying the Nevermore. I think right then I really began to realize what it meant to have hope again. I do still have some problems with trying to be the loner warrior, but I think I’m making some good strides. Plus, given the fact that I’m not team leader, I think that has helped this team function a lot better. She helps get the team to focus on what’s truly important on the battlefield.”

“Not a bad way of looking at it I guess.”

“Well, it’s the truth.”  
  
  
  
“Think about it Natls. Jaune is the leader of Team JNPR, but who’s the person who is constantly calling the shots for the team in battle?”

“Pyrrha I guess?”

“Exactly. But do you think that Pyrrha is the best choice to lead their team?”

“Well, I would think so. I mean she completely owns the battlefield. Heck, they sent her to the to the singles round of the Vytal Festival last year.”

“But she isn’t the leader. And haven’t you noticed that she and the other members of Team JNPR respect Jaune as their leader?”

“I guess that’s true, but that doesn’t mean it translates to me and our team.”

“Maybe not, but while Miles does provide our team with fighting skills, you provide the team with something much more important.”

“What’s that?”

“The desire to protect the ones you care about. Christy and I have been dating off and on again from time to time before this year. Sometimes it would be my fault, and there might have been an instance or two where it was her fault, I’m not sure. We both like to take most of the blame whenever we go through that phase. But the biggest thing is that no matter what stage our relationship was in, we always pushed to make sure that we took care of each other. Even when I was just a complete jerk and totally deserved what was coming to me, she still saved me from certain death. I guess the fact of the matter is, you are the best to lead this team. You care about those around you despite whatever history you might have had with them. I mean heck, Miles tried to kill you when you first met each other, and then the very next day you saved his life from the Nevermore. And again a few months later, when your own brother was attacking him and Miles was ready to die, you stood up against your own brother to protect him. You have such a strong desire to protect, I think that will serve you very well in life.”

“But that won’t help us win a battle!”

“No, but it will keep people alive when fighting monsters.”  
  
  
  
“Not every question can be answered in an instant. Not every problem can be solved in a day. And not every person has the chance to be a hero in their lifetime. They all have the potential, but I believe that there are those out there who can truly rise above and accept the weight of the world on their shoulders and help make the world a better place. Natalie is no different. A simple soul who has the desire to protect the world because she knows the pain of being alone and not having anybody to help you.”

“Didn’t she have her brother while growing up?”

“Yes, but that can only carry somebody so far. And despite her positive attitude, she is still fearful of the world outside her comfort zone. She may not look like she desires connections, but deep down, she wants to feel love back, and not just a constant pouring out of love. Perhaps that is why she is always with Ruby. The two of them are both very similar, but so very different at the same time. Ruby lost her mother, but found ways to connect with others and find love in return because she had friends to guide her. Natalie didn’t have anybody like that, nor did she have the social interactions to create such bonds. But she still wishes to reach out to others because she knows the pain of not having anybody and wishes to heal that pain no matter how much or how little she gets in return.”

“That’s great and all Professor Ozpin, but that doesn’t solve the fact that we still are in debt to the other kingdoms.”

“Money is something that makes the world move, but doesn’t make the world live. Be patient. In time, we will make that money back, and the world will move on. Now then, if there is nothing else Mr. Hallfrisch, that will be all.”

“Yes Professor.” Beanie said as he got on the elevator to leave.  
  
  
  
“Well thanks for breakfast Evan. And for the talk.”

“Of course. I mean, its’ not like I do all that much around here.”

“Actually, I was wondering, could you offer me some other advice?”

“About what exactly?”

“Well…..dating?”

“Depends. Who are we talking about here.”

“Well….there’s this guy in one of my classes, and it seems pretty clear that he likes me.”

“Do you like him as well?”

“I’m not completely sure, but I am thinking about going out on a date with him and seeing how I feel about it.”

“Well if that’s the case then just trust your heart and it will find the answer.”

“Is that all?”

“Oh, and don’t go all out just for a first date. And simple evening playing video games will be fine.”

“Ok. Phew, I thought I was going to have to wear that stupid dress from the dance again.”  
  
  
  
“All right then. Thanks for listening to me ramble for last few minutes Blake.”

“No problem. Just return the favor whenever I feel all moody and down?”

“Anytime. Hey, just so you know, I wouldn’t mind working out whatever we are supposed to be alongside you.”

“Isn’t that how things like this usually work? Two people working together to make themselves work as a couple or something?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never really been in anything like that before.”

“Yeah, the last guy I kind of liked turned into a psychotic killer who has tried to kill me many times over.”

“Yeah, not exactly a good track record there.” The two of them laughed, then looked at each other. Not exactly sure what they were doing, they began leaning towards each other, lips beginning to extend.

“What’s up you two!” Miles and Blake jumped back into upright sitting positions as Yang’s voice cut in.

“Not much. Just wrapping up training.” Miles said clearly flustered.

“Really? You sure you two weren’t about to make out or something?”

“Oh real mature Yang!” Blake yelled as she got up.”

“Hey, just because you two aren’t open about your relationship doesn’t mean we can’t make fun of you for it.” Nathan said with a smile as he put his arm on Yang’s shoulder.

“Yeah, you two are lovey dovey. We get it. Can you please keep us out of it?”

“Touchy touchy Mr. Watson. We’re just trying to have a little fun.” Yang said giving him a punch in the shoulder.

“Yeah, well keep me out of it. Hey Blake, you interested in a game of Magic?”

“Better than hanging out here. Mind if I tweak my deck before we play?”

“Only if I can use my power deck.”

“Ugh, that deck is so broken!”

“Not as bad as the mill deck that guy at the CCTS has.”

“Fair point.” As the two of them left, Yang and Nathan continued to get ready for their sparring session.

“So…anything you need to talk about Nathan?”

“Nope. You?”

“Nope. Let’s fight!”

“Please!”


	20. Episode 2: Chapter 4: Opening Round

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4 of Episode 2 of Order of Seasons

Natalie was shaking in her boots. She was rising up on a platform about to enter the ring of Amity Coliseum, alongside the other thirty-one teams that were in the competition. She was a nervous wreck. She didn’t even notice that she had turned invisible.

“Natls, it’ll be fine. We just pop up, smile and wave, and then find out who the first teams fighting will be.”

“Easy for you to say Nathan. I mean, everybody is going to be looking right at me! I don’t think I can handle that much pressure!”

“Relax fearless leader.” Miles said with a smirk. “It’s just like your brother said. Smile and wave. Besides, with luck we could be the first team to fight, and then you wouldn’t have to worry about anything except fighting for the next few minutes.”

“Oh yeah, that makes me feel so much better.” As the podium rose to the surface, the crowd roared. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining brightly into the coliseum. The crowd continued to cheer, while all the fighters waved to the crowd. Then, a platform lowered down in front of all the teams, and standing on it was Professor Ozpin with a microphone. As soon as the platform landed, he began speaking to the entire world as the cameras all focused right on him.

“Around this time last year, the peace that all Huntsmen and Huntresses fight to protect was threatened by someone who believed that the world we fought for was weak. That it was flawed, and it needed to be changed. But the heroes who wanted to stand for what they believed to be right stood against one of the greatest threats to this world with no fear and no regrets. They were only students, but they answered a call that not many professional Huntsmen answer every day. Not all of them could compete in this tournament this year, but let us take a moment to honor them and their devotion to this world we live in.” As soon as he said this, another platform rose up from the ground revealing several teams who participated in last years Vytal Festival, including, Team COCO, Team CRDL, even Team FNKI was among their number.

“And now, there is a special message from somebody who wished they could be here, but due to certain circumstances, can’t.”

“Salutations!” Everybody looked around and realized that now instead of Ozpin on the screens, it was Penny Polendina.

“Hello friends!” The cheerful robot exclaimed. The crowd started applauding and gave her a standing ovation. “I wish I could be with you all today, but I still have some repairs to complete before I’m fully operational.” Penny then turned to reveal that her left arm was in fact missing, and there were still several wires sticking out of her back. “Don’t worry! Soon enough, once again I will be combat ready!” She exclaimed while giving her traditional salute. “To all my friends at Beacon, I can’t wait to see you all again! And to Ms. Nikos, I hope you win the tournament because I really want a rematch between us with no bad people around!” Pyrrha smiled and gave a thumbs up to the camera as it focused in on her.

“I look forward to it Penny.” The crowd applauded and Penny smiled.

“Well, I’ll see you all later then!” With that said, her feed was cut off and it focused back onto Ozpin.

“Thank you Ms. Polendina. We wish you a speedy recovery. Now then, I officially declare the Restoration Tournament open!” As soon as these words were uttered, the crowd erupted louder than before. “Now then, I’ll leave the remainder of the events to our capable commentators in the booth, Professors Port and Oobleck.”

“It’s doctor!” Professor Oobleck yelled over his microphone. “But yes, thank you Professor Ozpin! It brings me great joy to commentate once again on the tournaments this year! And of course it is great to be doing so alongside my colleague and good friend Professor Port!”

“Ho ho! Thank you Bartholomew! Now then, let’s determine our first match of this year’s tournament! Would the committee please bring the wheel out to the center stage?” As soon as he said this, another platform rose out of the center of the arena revealing the giant spinner for the tournament. The wheel was spun and landed on Team AXLL. The team stepped forward and recognized the audience. Then the wheel was spun again, and this time landed on Team NEMN.

“All right!” Nathan exclaimed. “Beats just sitting in the stands for several hours on end!”

“Now then children,” Professor Port interjected, “all teams not fighting right now are to report to the stands immediately, while the two teams that are about to face off are to report to the locker rooms and prepare for battle!”  
  


As Natalie was getting ready for the match, she looked over at her teammates. Nathan was clutching Ember’s old necklace, Evan was talking to Christy, and Miles was just sitting there meditating. Clasping her weapon tightly, she started to get even more nervous than earlier. What if she messed up? Would the crowd laugh at her? Would this affect her grade somehow?

“You know, sometimes you turn half invisible when you fill your head with self-doubt.” Natalie turned to see Ruby standing right above her with a huge smile on her face.

“Oh, hey Ruby.” Natalie said smiling a little bit, but still clearly nervous.

“Don’t worry about it.” Ruby said patting her on the back.” As long as you guys stick together, you should be fine.”

“I’m just afraid of messing up. How do you overcome that fear?”

“When I do, I’ll let you know. I’m going up to sit with everybody else. Good luck!” She turned to leave.

“Wait!”

“Yeah?” Ruby turned around to see Natalie holding up her fist.

“For luck?” Ruby smiled, walked over to the quiet girl, gave her a quick fist bump, and then left. After that happened, the tension just seemed to disapate.

"You know, I’m kind of envious of you Natls.” Nathan said putting on his boots and clipping his clubs to his side. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a friendship like you and Ruby.”

“Yeah, the two of you are pretty awesome.” Miles said as he placed his swords into his sheaths.”

“Come on guys,” Natalie said scratching her head in embarrassment. “It’s nothing special.”

“Trust me, Natls.” Miles said placing his hand on Natalie’s shoulder. “Throughout the course of time, the most important thing we can do is hold onto our closest friendships. It’s pretty amazing how even if one goes off down the wrong path, the other will still rise up to make sure that their friend is saved, even if they get hurt in the process.

“Guys, we kind of have a fight to get to?” Evan said as he stepped onto the platform. “Save the philosophy lessons for a later time please?”

  
  
  
The platform rose up into the center of the arena and the crowd erupted into applause once again. Right beside them was Team AXLL, smiling and waving to the crowd. Each of them stood on their half of the battlefield and waited as the biome selector started to spin. The first one was determined on Team NEMN’s side, and was the destroyed city biome. Meanwhile, on Team AXLL’s side, the selected field was the ice biome. As soon as the two fields were added to the arena, the countdown began, and all the fighters got into their ready stances. Then, the horn sounded for the match to begin, and Team AXLL charged headlong towards their opponents. With a quick sidestep, Team NEMN dodged pretty much all of them, while Miles simply knocked Luna back into the ice biome and pursued after her. On the other hand, the rest of Team NEMN engaged their opponents in the broken landscape. Natalie quickly started trading blows with their team leader Avian and his claw weapons. Evan was busy fighting off Xen and his twin buzzsaws, while Nathan was making quick work of Lucien and his giant electric baton.  


Miles was still trying to gain his footing in the ice biome while Luna simply pushed a button on her shoes and metal spikes popped right out. Now having her bearings, she rushed towards Miles with her reverse sword style and knocked him back into one of the giant pillars of ice. Deciding to try and buy himself more time, Miles increased the pull of gravity on his own body tenfold in order to keep himself from slipping and to keep Luna from knocking him around any further. Miles was then finally able to disarm her, and force her out of the ring by changing the direction of her gravitational pull to the edge of the ring. The buzzer sounded signifying the ring out, and Miles looked up to see that his aura had fallen down to about 30% during that little stunt. He took a deep breath, returned his gravity to normal, and rushed over to where the rest of his teammates were fighting.  


Natalie kept moving backwards trying to stay out of reach of Avian’s claws. Her weapon and fighting style weren’t a good match for the close quarters nature of her opponents weapon choice. And it also didn’t help that despite constantly backing away from her opponent, he had little tiny mini pistols in each of his claws that he could fire to not give her a chance to catch her breath. However, she found an opening when they started getting closer to one of the crumbling buildings. Quickly running inside, she found one of the darker corners and turned invisible. Her opponent didn’t see her turn invisible, so when he got inside, he couldn’t find her. He started searching everywhere in the building, but then he looked back outside. There was Natalie, standing there plain as day, not even looking back at the building. Seeing his chance, he leapt from the floor he was on and prepared to slice her to ribbons. But as soon as he got close, Natalie melted away like she was wet paint, and in her place was a giant piece of metal debris. He had to change the direction of his fall to avoid getting impaled by the giant piece of junk, but he still hit the wall pretty hard. And when he landed, Evan was right there to deal a punch from his gauntlet and a strong hit from his spear into the barrel of Blue Wavecrest and an explosive fire round to knock him out of the competition. The two fist bumped each other and ran over to where Nathan was wrapping up his fight with Lucien, completely draining his aura. The three of them re-grouped, and realized that Xen was still in the competition, his aura levels still really high.

“What should we do Natalie?” Evan asked.

“We can just overwhelm him, right?”

“Well, I’ve got a bit left in the tank for a deus-ex-machina. How about it fearless leader?” They all turned to see Miles standing there with a big grin on his face.

“By all means Mr. Watson. Go right ahead.” Miles nodded at the command from his leader, raised his hand, and sent Xen flying towards the outside of the arena. Suddenly, the buzzer sounded signifying his aura levels had dropped too low.

“Miles Watson! Cease your actions immediately or your team will be disqualified!” A voice yelled over the loudspeakers. Miles raised his hands in defense, and let Xen drop to the ground, outside the ring. The buzzer sounded for the ring out, and the crowd roared in excitement.

“And that’s the match!” Professor Oobleck said excitedly. “The first victor of the tournament is Team NEMN of Vale!” The crowd gave them a standing ovation, and Team NEMN gave each other high fives and hugs.

“We did it!” Natalie exclaimed.

“See? Was that so hard fearless leader?”

“Oh ha ha. Let’s just get back upstairs please? I’m getting a bit uncomfortable down here just doing nothing.”  


As soon as they got back to their seats, Yang got up to give Nathan a huge hug. Miles and Blake shared a fist bump, Ruby and Natalie high-fived, while Evan and Christy gave each other a quick kiss.

“Good win you guys!” Christy stated as she sat down next to Evan.

“Thanks, but in all honesty, that wasn’t a very difficult match.” Miles said as he sat down next to Blake.

“Those guys were true first years. Not that much experience outside of the classroom.” Weiss said. “Given the fact that all of you have pretty much gone above and beyond what’s expected of students in their first year, I honestly am surprised that the match wasn’t over quicker.”

“Yeah. What she said.” Everybody on Team NEMN looked over at the new blue-haired youth sitting next to Weiss who had just randomly cut in on the conversation.

“Oh, I’m sorry. You guys haven’t met Neptune yet. Neptune, these are my friends, Natalie, Evan, Miles and Nathan. Friends this is Neptune, my boyfriend.”

“Is it just me or does almost everybody in our group of friends have a romantic relationship with somebody?” Blake said looking at all the different couples.

“I think you, me, Jacob, Brooklyn and Ty are the only people who aren’t in an active relationship right now.” Miles said.

“Ugh! Stop trying to deny it!” Nathan said as he punched Miles in the shoulder.

“Deny what?” Everybody turned to see a blond haired faunus with a monkey tail waking over to the group and sitting down next to Blake as well.

“Ah. Sun. You’re back. Guys, this is Sun. He and the rest of his team were here last year and helped us fight back against Cinder and her forces.”

“So, are you two on separate teams?” Miles asked Sun.

“No, me and Neptune are both members of Team SSSN.”

“Wow. And I thought Team RWBY was a lazy name.” Brooklyn joked.

“Hey! It makes ironic sense!” Ruby interjected.

“Guys shut up!” Yang yelled. “They’re about to announce the next match!”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
After an exciting fight between Team RIFL and Team IRN, the wheel was spun once again. When it stopped, the team selected was Team JCTB.

“All right! Finally I can do something other than sit around!” Ty said in excitement. The wheel was spun yet again, this time landing on Team SSSN.

“Well at least we got introductions out of the way. See you guys on the battlefield.” Neptune said getting up, but not before giving Weiss a quick peck on the cheek. As they headed off to the locker rooms, Ruby ran off and them came back about a second later with popcorn and two drinks. One for her and one for Natalie, which she happily accepted.

“This is going to be good.” Natalie said as she put a handful of popcorn in her mouth.


	21. Episode 2: Chapter 5: Upset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 5 of Episode 2 of Order of Seasons

Jacob pulled out his katana as he and his team rose up on one of the platforms to face off against Team SSSN. He was completely focused. He was ready to show the world what he could do on the battlefield. As the platform rose into the arena, he raised his sword high in the air with confidence. The crowd roared in anticipation and in reverence of his confidence. Meanwhile Team SSSN just stood there calm and relaxed, seeming like they were just having a good time.

“Just because you guys are first years and friends with our friends doesn’t mean we’ll go easy on you.” Sun said with a quick smirk. Jacob didn’t pay any heed to his remarks, but his teammates did.

“Hey! Watch your mouth smart aleck!” Brooklyn yelled.

“I just hope you guys are prepared to lose.” Ty said lifting his sword onto his shoulder.

“Good luck all of you!” Christy said with a smile as she got her axes into battle-ready mode. With that said, the biome selector began to spin. The first result was the savannah biome on the side of Team JCTB, and then right after that the forest biome was selected. Everybody got set for the battle, and the horn sounded beginning the fight. Sun and Scarlet immediately jumped back into the forest area while Neptune started taking shots at his opponents and Sage rushed right towards Ty. Ty parried Sage’s blow rather easily, but it was clear that the two could be evenly matched in power. Christy and Jacob rushed into the forest after the other two while Brooklyn stopped Neptune from taking any more shots at her teammates, knocking him down to the ground. Neptune quickly got back up and transformed his weapon to trident form and smiled at Brooklyn.

“You single?”

“Don’t you have a girlfriend?”

“Sorry, old habits die hard I guess.”  
  


Ty and Sage continued to go back and forth. Surprisingly, Sage managed to gain a step ahead of Ty and knocked him into the high grass of the savannah. Quickly collecting himself, Ty got a good shot in at Sage, but he then quickly turned the tables and got a good hit on Ty as well. They then both pulled their blades back and clashed sending a large shockwave out causing all the grass in the field to bend to the power.  
  


Brooklyn and Neptune had to brace themselves as the shockwave from Ty and Sage’s attack rolled right past them. But as soon as it passed, Brooklyn resumed her relentless attack on Neptune. Neptune used his trident to parry the attacks from Brooklyn’s scimitar, but it was clear that her weapon had much more mobility than his. But then he got an idea. He jumped away from Brooklyn and started unloading shots at her. She quickly morphed her weapon into shield form, and started to try and rush Neptune head on. But then all of a sudden, he spun around behind her and stabbed her in the back. Brooklyn immediately started to turn around, but then found herself unable to move as Neptune used the electrical currents in his trident to send Brooklyn’s aura down to a flat zero. Brooklyn wasn’t even able to stand after that attack. She just passed out on the ground, leaving Neptune having to let his weapon recharge before moving towards the savannah to where Ty and Sage were fighting.  
  
  
  
Christy and Jacob continued to chase down Sun and Scarlet deeper and deeper into the forest. Sun was dancing along the trees with great ease, while Scarlet continued to run along the ground weaving back and forth to avoid the blasts from Christy’s shotguns. Jacob was starting to get annoyed. They weren’t even trying to fight back; they just kept running deeper and deeper into the forest. Jacob kept getting more and more ticked off so he threw a knife at Scarlet to trip him up. Scarlet dodged the knife itself, but not the fireball explosion that followed. Scarlet then tumbled to the ground while Christy continued to chase after Sun and Jacob jumped up to attempt and land a huge hit on Scarlet. However, Scarlet managed to recover in time, and used the grappling hook portion of his pistol to latch himself onto a tree and pull himself out of the way of Jacob’s attack. Quickly getting back up, he pulled out his cutlass and started trading blows with Jacob.  
  


Christy continued to pursue Sun, but it was clear that he had the advantage in the trees. So she decided to pull him out by doubling back and start heading back to where Jacob and Scarlet were going toe to toe. Sun noticed this, spun back around using his tail on one of the trees, and fired a few shots from his staff to slow her down. Christy turned back to face Sun, and morphed her shotguns to axe form. She was ready for close quarters combat, but all of a sudden, Sun clasped his hands together and two light clones of himself appeared. One of them immediately engaged Christy, while the other moved on to where Scarlet and Jacob were fighting. Christy was caught off guard by the light clone, and fell a few steps backwards. She quickly gathered herself and smashed the clone into shards of light. But then Sun came barreling right into her full force with his staff, and knocked her right through one of the trees and flying towards where Jacob and Scarlet were fighting.  
  


Scarlet was struggling immensely to keep up with Jacob. While he was good with a sword, he clearly wasn’t on the same level as Jacob. But then out of the blue, one of Sun’s light clones appeared out of nowhere, and barreled right into Jacob, stunning him for a few seconds. Enough time for Scarlet to land a few strikes in before Jacob activated his time dilation state to catch up and parry Scarlet’s blows once again. But in the time it took for him to do this, his time dilation ran out, so he had to finish him off quickly. Jacob then spun around another one of Scarlet’s attacks, and landed a massive blow, sending him flying. But then all of a sudden, Scarlet collided with a flying Christy. The impact knocked Scarlet’s aura down to 3%, while Christy still had about 25% left. She got up, and looked up to see how much aura Jacob had left. He had about 60% while Sun still had 85%. She placed her hand on Jacob’s shoulder and used 10% of her aura to boost him up to about 75%, and then the buzzer sounded signaling she had fallen bellow the threshold.

“What was that for Christy? We have more strength in numbers!”

“Look, I was almost done anyways. Better to have you and Ty leading the charge at mostly full health than having me just be cannon fodder. Good luck Jacob.” With that said, Christy started walking off the arena stage, while Jacob immediately began clashing with Sun. Sun was using his complete staff to counter Jacob’s katana, and it looked like neither side was gaining any ground. So out of the blue, Sun jumped away from Jacob and hid himself in the trees. Jacob was initially able to keep up with him, but then lost sight of him after a few seconds. He continued to grow even angrier than he was before.

“Enough running! Face me you coward!” Then all of a sudden, Jacob heard a rustling in one of the trees. Without wasting any time, he leapt up into the tree and unleashed a powerful strike. But then he noticed he had only sliced through one of Sun’s light copies, and had lodged his sword in the tree. He gave it a quick yank to get it out, but then as he turned to get back down, all he saw was a bright red staff in his face. Sun had been hiding on the branch above and had swung down using his tail to knock Jacob clear off the stage, resulting in a ring out. Jacob collected himself, looked up at the scoreboard and realized that not only was he and Christy out, but so was Brooklyn. And Ty had used up all of his enhanced defense and was losing aura fast.

“This is bad. We’re going to lose.”  
  
  
  
Ty staggered back a few steps as Sage landed another large blow to his shoulder. Collecting himself, instead of using his sword once again, he instead used his left hand to grab Sage’s sword, and used his right hand to swing his sword dealing a massive hit, dropping Sage’s aura to 12%. Ty quickly checked his aura levels and realized that he still had about 35% aura and he had only Neptune and Sun left to fight.

“All right, let’s do this.” He turned to try and find his opponents, but then, standing right in front of him, was Neptune with his weapon in trident form. Neptune didn’t waste any time for a quick pun, he just stabbed Ty right in the chest and sent a powerful electrical current throughout his entire body. He couldn’t even find a way to counter the attack. He just took the hit, fell to one knee, and let the buzzer sound signifying that he had lost. Neptune jumped up and down in excitement, and ran over and gave Sun a fist bump and the two danced in celebration. Ty was a bit slow to get up, but then felt a pair of hands on his back and he then felt a bit better. Christy gave up the last bit of her aura to him so that he could at least walk to the platform that lead down to the lockers.  
  


As they all put their stuff away, Jacob punched his locker in frustration.

“What happened out there?! We’re supposed to be better than this!”

“Take it easy man.” Ty said as he put his sword away. “They were just ready for us this time. We gave it our all, but I guess our style didn’t really match well with theirs. I mean, I was kept at bay for most of the fight, Sun and Scarlet didn’t really give Christy any chance to use her stealth tactics, and your lack of patience didn’t help the situation either.”

“I…okay I’ll give you that. I did let my temper get the better of me when they ran off and didn’t stand and fight. But what about you Brooklyn? What tripped you up?”

“I guess he realized that my style is just head on attacks and got me from behind. Nothing more nothing less.”

“You guys did good though.” They all turned to see Sun and his teammates being lowered down into the lockers after having been officially accepted into the next round. “If everybody except for Sage stood and fought you guys, we wouldn’t have won at all. You guys definitely have a ton of skills that will serve you well next year at the Vytal Festival.”

“Thanks. That just makes me feel so much better.” Jacob said as he turned to leave.

“Hey come on man! I’ve seen your style! You’re a great swordsman and a patient person more often than not! What was different today?”

“I prefer not to talk about it.” Jacob said as he stormed off. As soon as he left, the members of Team RWBY, JNPR, and NEMN all entered the locker rooms. Evan walked over to Christy and gave her a hug, while Weiss did the same for Neptune.

“What are you guys doing here? Aren’t they about to announce the next fight?” Ty asked.

“They are, but we figured that if they called one of our teams into battle, then we’re already here.” Ruby said with a smile. “And if not, then we can just grab something to eat for all you guys and go from there.”

“Convenient!” Natalie said throwing her hands in the air. Everybody got a good chuckle out of this as they turned on the TV to see who was going to be in the next match.  
  
  
  
“Are you sure?” Professor Ozpin asked.

“Of course I am. I mean, I would have preferred the team with the invisible kid, but I think this works out a lot better.”

“Very well. First thing tomorrow, I’ll call them into my office and explain the situation to them.”

“Excellent. I can’t wait to see my son again.”


	22. Episode 2: Chapter 6: Moving On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 6 of Episode 2 of Order of Seasons

Jacob was just throwing a rubber ball against the wall. He still couldn’t believe it. His team had lost in the opening round while only managing to knock out only two opponents. His scroll went off again with another call from his father. He threw it against the wall in frustration and just let it ring. Then, there was a knock at the door.

“It’s open.” As soon as he said this, the door creaked open and Brooklyn peeked in.

“You doing okay Jacob?”

“Does it look like I’m doing okay?”

“Come on man, it was just one fight. In what was pretty much a make up tournament. Why is this eating away at you so much?”

“You know Brooklyn, I wasn’t lying when I told Weiss the reason I wanted to come here was so we could continue our rivalry. But it was also in defiance of my father. He wanted me to go to Atlas. He wanted me to go through military training. But he gave up that idea when he heard that I defeated Pyrrha. But in place of just going to Atlas, he wanted me to travel the world and experience all the different schools and their training. And now that I’ve lost in a big tournament, he’s now got a huge reason to tell me to obey him.”

“So…wait, you came here to Beacon because you wanted to continue our rivalry, fight Pyrrha, and defy your father?”

“That about sums it up, yeah.”

“Yeesh. Am I glad I don’t have any crazy family drama or anything like that.”

“Thanks Brooklyn. That makes me feel so much better.”

“Look, the thing is that you’re an adult now. Who says you have to follow your family’s orders any more?”

“The small fact that they are paying for my tuition and room and board is a good starting point.”

“True, but there’s probably got to be some loophole that can let you stay here right?”

“If there is one, I have yet to find it.” Suddenly both their scrolls went off with a new message alert. Brooklyn pulled hers out and read it real quickly.

“Apparently Professor Ozpin wants to see us in his office.”

“Me and you only?”

“No, our whole team. Something about a new mission.”

“Odd. Usually there aren’t any missions available for students during tournaments.”

“Maybe since this isn’t a Vytal Festival there are some alternative options?”

“Perhaps. Either way, we should get going unless we want Ty and Christy to beat us both up there.”  
  
  
  
  
As the elevator started going up to Professor Ozpin’s office, Jacob got another call on his scroll.

“Ugh! He just won’t leave me alone!” he yelled in annoyance as he silenced the call from his father.

“Maybe you should at least talk to him. Give your side of the argument for staying here?” Brooklyn said as she tightened up one of her shoelaces.

“He wouldn’t listen. The only thing he cares about is results that interest him. We’ll talk about this later. We’ve arrived.” The elevator doors opened and the two of them walked out. Right next to them, the other elevator doors opened and Ty and Christy stepped out. They all walked over to Professor Ozpin’s desk, not saying a word. Ozpin wasn’t even looking at them. He was just looking out the window down at the docks. He then turned in his chair and smiled.

“Thank you all for coming here on such short notice. I apologize that this meeting had to come off of such a difficult battle for you.” Jacob folded his arms, clearly upset by Ozpin’s remark. “Please understand that the only reason you are here is because you are no longer in the tournament.”

“Thanks, that makes me feel so much better.” Jacob said throwing his hands in the air.

“Please let me finish. Honestly, we believed that Team NEMN was going to be eliminated in the first round, and not you. But while this mission did lose a student with amazing stealth abilities, it did gain somebody who is related to the Hunstman leading this mission.”

“Wait, related?” Jacob reacted slightly concerned. “Who’s leading this mission?”

“Relax kid, you aren’t my problem.” A new voice rang out from behind them. They all turned to see a Huntsman who was dressed almost exactly like Ty. Except instead of red, his coat was blue, and instead of a giant sword, he wielded twin katana blades, both of them slightly longer than Jacobs.

“What are you doing here old man?” Ty said with a huge grin on his face.

“Taking you chuckleheads on a field trip it looks like.”

“For the rest of you who may not know, this is Ty’s father, Damien “Vergil” Boyer.” Ozpin said. Vergil walked over to Ty and gave him a big hug, then proceeded to shake the hands of every remaining member of Team JCTB. As soon as the formalities were out of the way, Vergil walked over and stood beside Professor Ozpin while Ozpin began explaining everything.

“What I am about to tell you four is extremely classified. A few months ago, there was an incident where Cinder Fall was killed in prison.” Team JCTB all had confused and concerned looks as soon as he said this.

“Killed?” Brooklyn asked. “How?”

“How else do you kill somebody young blood? You stab them!” Vergil said with clear sarcasm in his voice.

“Vergil, please.” Ozpin said raising his hand. Vergil nodded and took a step back. “We don’t know why or how, but what we do know is that the aura of the Fall Maiden was taken alongside her death.”

“So, what does that have to do with anything?” Ty asked.

“The thing is, for years now the aura of the Summer Maiden has been lost to us. We assumed that it just simply entered the body of a child and in time it would surface again. However, now that the Fall Maiden’s power has been taken, we have to begin assuming the worst that somebody is attempting to gain control of the power held by the four maidens.”

“So what?” Jacob asked. “It’s not like they can just inject themselves with it and they are suddenly invincible.”

“That’s what we thought as well, until Cinder stole the power of the Fall Maiden for herself. It is possible that whoever is collecting this power has access to the technology that Atlas has which allowed us to take the Fall Maiden’s power from Cinder to begin with. And if that is indeed the case, we need to make sure that no other maidens fall into whatever trap this unseen enemy has planned. That is why I brought Vergil in. The Winter Maiden is going to be traveling from Mistral to Atlas in a few short days. We want you to escort her to make sure everything goes smoothly.”

“So wait, you want us to be bodyguards?”

“Not at all Ms. Curtiss. That is Vergil’s job. Also, the Maiden can take care of herself in a pinch. However, I feel like if we have more Huntsmen at the ready, then with the combined power of the Winter Maiden, whoever this enemy is will have no chance in capturing her.”

“That’s all fine and good, but what about the Spring Maiden?”

“As of right now, the Spring Maiden is on her way to a secret location in Atlas. It is the same place that you will be escorting the Winter Maiden.”

“So, is it just going to be us four and Vergil then?” Jacob asked.

“Maybe. Maybe not. The Winter Maiden, whose real name is Zimara, is leaving for Vale tomorrow. In that time, the doubles round will be taking place today. I would hope that Team RWBY, Team JNPR, or even Team NEMN gets eliminated so they could accompany you all. However, if they all qualify for the final eight bracket, then you will be the only ones who will be going on mission with Vergil here.”

“What about Team CFVY? Or Team CRDL for that matter?”

“Team CFVY is off on an important mission revolving around eliminating White Fang safe houses, while Team CRDL is still working out their detention.”

“Yeesh, what did these kids do to have detention for so long?” Vergil asked scratching his head.

“Mainly racism towards the Faunus, bullying other students, cheating on their tests and beating people up for the fun of it just for starters.”

“Man. How have they not been expelled yet?”  
  
  
  
  
  
Miles was getting his swords ready for the next fight as Blake and Yang were lowered into the lockers from the arena, both giving each other huge hugs.

“We’re going back to the finals!” Yang said excitedly.

“Great job out there Yang!” Blake said with a big smile. Then the platform touched down, and the two of them ran over to their teammates to give them big hugs of happiness.

“Great job representing out there today sis!”

“Thanks Ruby! Couldn’t have done it without cat-girl here!”

“Yang! What have I said about calling me that?” Blake said clearly annoyed.

“Nothing as far as I can remember.” Nathan said as he walked in and gave Yang a fist bump. “By the way, great job out there babe!”

“Thanks man!” Yang said as she gave Nathan a quick peck on the cheek.

“Please you two,” Miles said getting up and placing his swords in his sheaths. “Save the P.D.A. for when I’m not in the room please?”

“Too late!” Nathan said as he placed one square on Yang’s lips, which she happily accepted. Miles groaned and pinched his forehead.

“Criminy, why do I hang out with you people?”

“Me and Christy do it more often than not and you don’t seem to have a problem with it then.” Evan said while he was putting his gauntlet on.

“Yeah, but at least you don’t A: make bad puns at ad infinitum, and B: you don’t show it off like it’s something so amazing everybody has to know about it.”

“I guess that’s fair. You ready to go?”

“Yeah. Let’s bust some heads.”   
  
  
  
  
  
The two of them then walked over to the platform and rose into the arena. On the opposite side were their two opponents from Team RIFL. One of them was a tall man with a green t-shirt and a pair of jeans, and he sported a flamethrower on his back. To his left was a girl with short blond hair and wielded a quarterstaff with a spiked weight on each end. Not a single word was said between the two of them as the biome selector began to spin. On the side of Team NEMN were the fire and tron biomes, while on the side of their opponents were the destroyed city and mountain biomes. The countdown began, and Miles immediately drew his swords. As soon as the horn sounded for the match to begin and Miles immediately rushed towards the man with the flamethrower. However, out of the blue, the woman jumped in front of him and blocked the attack, sending them both into the grass right in front of the mountain. Miles collected himself, as did his opponent.

“We haven’t been properly introduced.” The girl said as she spun her weapon around and slammed it into the ground. “I’m Faith.”

“I don’t care.”  
  


Evan walked over to his opponent, neither one attacking or looking to attack.

“I saw you fight with your teammates last round.” the stranger said. “You fight with honor and light. Somebody you wish to protect?”

“Not really protect, but I just want to stay strong enough beside her so we can stand together as one.”

“Impressive. What is your name?”

“Evan Hahn. You?”

“I am Regial Delgia. I look forward to facing you.”

“As do I.” With that out of the way, the two of them got into their battle stances, and began clashing. Regial morphed his flamethrower from ranged form to sword form. His movements were limited as he did still have a hose connecting to his dust pack. However, what he lacked in mobility he made up for in power. It was clear that he didn’t really need to move that much, just as long as Evan stayed in front of him. Realizing this, Evan leapt backwards and activated his illusion space. Instead of blending in with his surroundings, he decided to create several different copies of himself, leading to Regial looking like he was surrounded. Reacting quickly, he turned his weapon back to ranged form and started unleashing flames from his weapon at the circle of Evans that surrounded him. As soon as the flames made contact with one of the clones, the illusion space began to melt away, but Evan was not right in front of him. Before he could turn around, Evan used his spear to impale the dust canister on Regial’s back, making his flamethrower mode completely useless. Annoyed at this new situation, Regial cut the cord from his sword to the canister and took a mighty swing at Evan. Initially, Evan attempted to block the attack with his gauntlet, but this proved extremely difficult, as Regial didn’t pull his sword back when his weapon connected with the gauntlet. Instead, he tried to continue pushing to knock Evan off his feet. Reacting quickly, Evan morphed his spear into rifle form and started unloading on Regial. Trying to defend himself, he pulled his sword back and started blocking the shots, but then Evan created another illusion space that Regial didn’t notice with a copy of himself standing right in front of him. Thinking it was the real Evan, Regial lunged forward and swung at the illusion full force, giving Evan enough time to leap up into the air and stab Regial in the back, knocking his aura down to 3%. The horn sounded signifying his defeat, and Evan pumped his fist in the air in victory, then started running over to the center of the stage to try and find Miles.  
  
  
  
Miles continued to parry the incoming attacks from Faith and her weapon. She didn’t have that much power, but her speed and experience with her weapon was more than enough to give her the advantage. But with a quick side step, Miles gained the momentum he needed and started pushing back. He used his white sword to parry incoming attacks, and used his black sword to deal massive damage. He also decided to try and speed things up by increasing the pull of gravity on his arms when he would swing down on some of his attacks, causing the blows to be much more devastating. Within seconds, her aura fell down to dangerous levels. Trying to get one last desperation move in, she pushed a button on her staff, causing the spiked ends to extend with chains, making a two-sided flail. She swung the large weapon at Miles, but he was hardly fazed by it. Taking the first attack in stride, he then used a bit of a gravitational push to force her back into the mountain wall, where he then ran up and delivered a huge blow to the chest, completely knocking her out. The buzzer sounded signifying the defeat, and he raised his sword in victory. Making his way back to the center, he found Evan having also completed his fight, and still standing strong. They high-fived each other and descended back down into the lockers where their friends were waiting.  
  
  
  
It was a rather simple fight. Jaune and Pyrrha completely dominated their match against Team FLWR and moved on to the next round. After the final battles finished, Professor Ozpin appeared once again in hologram form.

“Congratulations to the eight Huntsmen and Huntresses who have fought to this point. As it stands now, there are three teams from Beacon still standing, one team from Haven, two teams from Shade, and two teams from Atlas. Congratulations to all of you once again. But your fight hasn’t ended just yet. Now, you must strive to find it within yourselves to bring victory to your team, your school, and your kingdom. I wish you all well, and will see you tomorrow night for the first of the final matches.” With that said, the hologram turned off and everybody left the stadium for the night.  
  
  
  
  
Christy finished packing her belongings and started heading for the door. Waiting outside for her was Evan.

“So how long are you guys going to be gone?”

“Not sure, but I think we’re going to miss the rest of the tournament. I’m bummed. Are you going on to the final eight?”

“Nah. We took a vote and decided that Miles was the one we’re sending through to the finals. Figured he has the best chance out of all of us in one v one situations.”

“Makes sense. Well, wish him good luck for me then. I’m getting out of here.”

“I’ll miss you.”

“Me too.” The two of them gave each other a quick kiss and then Christy left for the airship that was taking her teammates and Vergil to where Zimara would be meeting them. As the airship took off, Jacob’s scroll buzzed yet again.

“Is he still trying to get in touch with you?” Brooklyn asked. “Didn’t you tell him that you were going away on a mission?”

“I texted him that, but I guess it’s not good enough for that crazy old man. I need to become more powerful before I can ever please him in any way shape or form.”

“What you need to do is move on from this.”

“Move on how?”

“Look, I don’t know how, but I have a large sum of money in my bank account from somewhere. Maybe I can help you pay your own tuition so you can stay here and not stay under your parents thumbs.”

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea. Are you sure you’re willing to do this at the drop of a hat? I mean, it’s not exactly cheap to study here at Beacon.”

“Well, the school pays for a good portion of your tuition since you won the Regional Tournament last year right? That probably means I could easily cover for whatever’s left so you don’t have to leave.” Jacob pondered Brooklyn’s suggestion for a second, and then placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Brooklyn, I think that’s about as good a solution as I am going to get. I can’t thank you enough for helping me out with this.”

“Hey, what can I say? Just doing business as usual.” They laughed at this and just sat there waiting for the airship to land, feeling a lot more confident about the future.  
  
  
  
  
As the airship touched down, the Spring Maiden stood up and walked over to the doors. As they opened, a stranger she did not recognize with a huge buster sword was standing there to greet her.

“I’m sorry. Who are you?” She asked as she stepped outside. Suddenly, the stranger grabbed her neck and started choking her.

“My name is Zenoma Mortem. But to you, I’m your liberator.” As soon as he said this, the maiden’s aura started to flow from her own body into the body of Mortem. The light of her soul seemed to flow like water out of her body and into the body of Mortem. After a few seconds, she was left as a shriveled up corpse, looking more like a dried up mummy than a human being. Mortem held now in his hand a glowing orb of pure energy. He waved over a few men standing by with a containment unit for aura. Placing his hand on the intake valve, he then transferred the energy of the orb through his body and into the containment unit. With that completed, he walked over to a limousine that took him to a tall building in the center of downtown Vacuo. Taking the containment module, he then made his way towards a wall, placed his ring into a special notch, and entered the elevator that arrived seconds later. When the elevator doors opened again, he saw that everybody was waiting for him. Then one of his subordinates stand up and announced,

“All kneel! Lord Mortem has returned!” As soon as those words were uttered, everybody fell to one knee as he took his seat. He smiled, placed the containment module next to the other two, and said,

“All right. I call this meeting to order. On to first business.”


	23. Episode 2: Chapter 7: Business

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 7 of Episode 2 of Order of Seasons

“All right. I call this meeting to order. On to first business. I am pleased to report that the power of the Spring Maiden is now ours to command.” Everybody in the room applauded this as Lord Mortem placed the glowing green canister next to the other two at the center of the table. “Now then, on to in-house issues. Mr. Indicium?” As soon as his name was called, Mr. Indicium walked over to Lord Mortem and pulled out a tablet scroll and held it aloft like he was reading a proclamation from an ancient parchment.

“First Lord Mortem, an issue in direct results with the actions of the traitor Cinder Fall. All the Atlas androids now no longer have protocol 66 installed in the hard drive.”

“Pity. And it worked so well against the fools in Vale. What of Alpha Theta directive?”

“As of right now, the technicians we have in place at Atlas have managed to keep the directive off the radar of the computer experts. While we do know that the directive will work and activate without fail, there is some concern that Ironwood and Ozpin may have attempted to install an alternate program in case if things go wrong.”

“First off, is this confirmed, and second, what would this program entail?”

“We can’t be completely certain. As of right now, these are only whispers. These whispers entail the ideas that either it would return the androids to their original masters, or it would be a kill code. Either one of these is possible, and our technicians are looking into it.”

“Fine. What else is there to report?”

“The preparations at Amity Coliseum have been completed for when you are ready to make the first move my lord.”

“Excellent. How appropriate, that the nation built around its military prowess will kneel to its own creations.”

“Are you truly willing to wait three years before making your move my lord?” Lord Mortem smiled at this, and addressed the concerns from his high council.

“I am a patient man Lord Fulgur. The fools in charge of the world still believe that the power of the maidens is simply floating in the wind of remnant. Besides, by making our move in Atlas, it would create much more distress in the hearts of man if they saw the protectors of the world crumble to pieces within their own walls.”

“Ha ha! It would seem you have been taking a few pages from my book Lord Mortem.” A new voice added in laughter.

“Lord Aeris, why would you assume that Lord Mortem would ever turn to you for inspiration?” Another voiced added clearly annoyed.

“Lighten up Firma! I’m just saying out of all you idiots I’m the one who come up with the most fun ideas around here!”

“You will address me as Lord Hibernis!”

“Such a terrible temper Lord Hibernis.” Memoriare said as he leaned back in his chair. “Just let her have this slight moment, and then lets get back to Lord Mortem’s plans for the future.”

“You are a fool Memoriare.” Lord Fulgur said standing up. “Just because Lord Mortem calls upon you for many a mission doesn’t give you a higher ranking than all of us!”

“All I do is follow my orders to the letter Lord Fulgur. If you take issue with that, then I suggest you should leave this table.”

“We are all at this table for a reason.” Adam said standing up. “Let us not bicker amongst ourselves like children.”

“Oh look, the red head is getting concerned.” Lord Hibernis with clear anger in his voice. “The youngest of the high council expects recognition because he gets more attention and favor from the news stations than he ever will from Lord Mortem.”

“Now listen here Lord Hibernis…” Suddenly, there was a loud crash as the giant buster sword of Lord Mortem crashed right into the table.

“Kneel.” As soon as he said this, everybody in the room fell once again to one knee. Pulling his sword out of the destroyed table, he pressed a button and a new table took the place of the broken one. As soon as the new table was in place, he sat back down and motioned for everybody to rise and be seated once again.

“Forgive me my lord.” Lord Hibernis said. “I acted out of turn.”

“Fret not. So long as we do not rupture within ourselves, we shall soon rule over this world. Now then, we have reports that the Winter Maiden is on the move to the same bunker the Spring Maiden was attempting to move to. As of right now, our agents are orchestrating an accident to make it look like she was killed by the crash. In the meantime, we shall send the White Fang to deal with the survivors to make sure that the world still keeps their focus on the organization as a whole instead of any third parties.”

“Lord Memoriare, forgive me for speaking out of turn,” Lord Fulgur said, “but according to my sources, the Demon Slayer Vergil has been spotted in Vale. Is it possible that Ozpin has begun to realize that there may be a bigger game at play here?”

“Perhaps. Ever since Cinder betrayed us to try and find favor with Salem, it is possible that Ozpin may be beginning to understand the power that not only lies within the maidens, but also within himself and his sister.”

“Speaking of which Lord Mortem,” Lord Aeris said leaning forward, “who is to receive the power of the child of the sun?”

“Yes. Have you even decided who among us is going to get which power my lord?” Lord Memoriare interjected.

“Of course my friends.” Lord Mortem stood up, and then started walking around the table. “To Nimbus Fulgur, warrior of lightning, you will be gifted with the power of summer, to match the terrible power your bolts can create. For Firma Hibernis, the power of spring shall be yours. A burning desire for power and control will be born of a new day after the sleeping world of snow fades and the power of the earth returns. For Calida Aeris, the power of winter shall be granted to thee. Seemingly foolish and soft in nature, but in time reveals a storm capable of great destruction and calculation like a raging dark fire. For Vinculum Memoriare, master of memories, the power of fall shall be bestowed upon you. Much like the decaying leaves, there is much history to them. But you hold the power to either preserve them for eternity, or snuff them out of existence. And for Adam Taurus, the newest member of my council, such a terrible anger that burns deep within you. The power of the dragon’s master, Salem, will be yours.”

“How can you be so certain that you can attain the power of Salem my lord?” Adam asked.

“Just as the markings in the ancient ruins that Lord Memoriare found said, the four of the seasons, the children of the sun as different as night and day, and the bridge in the form of the beast. With the chaos we shall create through the negative emotions in people’s hearts worldwide, the door to the dark realm shall be revealed to us. Cinder believed that the answer lied within simply having control over the dragon. However, it runs a bit deeper than that. But with the power I have attained from the dragon, I shall rip the door open and drain the power of Salem for us to command.”

“My lord, forgive me for asking,” Lord Fulgur spoke up, “but how did you manage to absorb the dragon? Grimm don’t have aura. How did you perform this feat?”

“An excellent question. Most Grimm are indeed without souls, and I cannot absorb them. However, the dragon itself is much like its master, pure darkness. All of the lesser Grimm are born of this great beast, and since they are shards of the whole, they do not posses an aura. However, the dragon is a piece of Salem and is the bridge between our world and the dark realm, therefore the creature had a fragment of an aura that I could absorb. And along with it, a deep infinite pool of darkness that allows me to call upon the mindless creatures of the darkness.”

“So in short, you can summon Grimm at will now?”

“That is the extent of my power now, yes. The absorption of aura and the summoning of creatures of darkness.”

“Interesting.” Lord Aeris pulled out one of her chakrams and started twirling it on her finger. “So what would the powers that you plan on bestowing to Adam entail?”

“I can’t say for certain. Since Salem was the being who created the dragon, it is possible all the powers of the dragon are shared with Salem. But since Salem is the sister to Ozpin, perhaps her powers are more reminiscent of her other half. We shall know in three years time however.”

“Another thing that bothers me Lord Mortem,” Lord Hibernis said standing up. “Why wait? If both the Spring and the Winter Maidens disappear now, even if it looks like an accident, after Cinder’s stunt last year, it might cause Ozpin to be a bit more suspicious than he already is. Especially if he knew what Cinder was attempting to accomplish.”

“It is possible that Ozpin may be a bit more cautious than he was last year. But by waiting and letting this tournament and the next one go off without any issues whatsoever, then their guard will lower and it will be far easier for us to strike. Besides, that fool Ironwood hardly ever lets his guard down. It would create such devastation for him to witness the fall of his own kingdom by the hands of his own soldiers.”

“Very well then.” Lord Hibernis sat down and placed his weapon on the table. “So who then will inherit the power that Ozpin wields?”

“That is actually second business today my friend. I am opening the floor for suggestions for high-ranking members in the Order to become the next member of the Council and wield the final piece of the ancient old power of the wizard. I am willing to take suggestions.” Not a single sound was made as soon as he finished. Some whispers floated around the room, but nobody spoke up nominating anybody. “Nobody? Really? Nobody can think of anybody to wield supreme power?”

“I would like to nominate Leo Odi my lord.” Adam said standing up.

“Young Odi? He’s still new to our cause, is he not?”

“That may be so Lord Mortem, but he has been a loyal soldier to me for a good amount of time now. I think he is somebody who can take on a role that benefits you my lord.”

“Well then. Any other suggestions? If not, then it shall be made that the next member of the council will be…

“I nominate my son!” All heads turned to where the new voice came from. Instead of from the council, it came from the large sea of regular ranking members surrounding the council table.

“You nominate your son Dr. Strohl? I thought he was not in the order.”

“He isn’t my lord, but if you give me a chance to convince him, he could be turned, and you could gain a very powerful ally.”

“Do I not already you, the strongest of the Strohl’s amongst my number?”

“Not quite. My son is the last of our line before the lineage resets. So if he could be turned and given a longer vitality with this power, you could have the strongest Strohl under your command for eight generations.”

“An interesting proposition doctor, but what if your son is against me?”

“Then he will die by my blade my lord.”

“A bold statement. I wonder if your wife shares your resolve.” All eyes then quickly turned to Aurora, who was completely caught off guard by the question.

“Oh, of course my lord. My loyalty goes to you first.”

“We shall see. Besides, is he not still currently at Beacon?”

“I have been trying to get in touch with him for some time my lord.” Peter said sitting back down. “But first thing tomorrow I will go to Beacon and bring him here myself.”

“Very good. I look forward to meeting this child.”

“My lord, you completely overlooked my suggestion of Leo Odi.” Adam said clearly upset. “He is somebody who is actually willing to fight for you and you choose to trust that a student from Beacon is just going to simply give up his life and obey his father out of the blue?”

“Firstly Adam, I have not looked over Leo Odi. If the Strohl child does not join us, then the power falls to your soldier. If he does take up the offer, the two of them will fight to determine who will inherit the power.”

“Fine. I will be patient.”

“Very good. Now then, on to final business. Any updates on the Winter Maiden my friends?”

“Lord Mortem,” Indicium shook as he walked over, “According to the away team, the Maiden is not on the airship.”

“What?”

“It’s possible that it was a decoy for us to chase after.”

“This is bad. Any possible ideas where she might truly be?”

“Perhaps she is with Vergil, as a more discreet mode of transportation.”

“Do we have the location of Vergil now?”

“Yes my lord. He is on an airship heading for Atlas.”

“Then we must take action. I will go and destroy the airship myself.”

“No my lord.” Lord Fulgur stood up and pulled out his weapon. “I am the best prepared for taking down airships. Let me go in your stead.”

“I have mastery of the winds you fools.” Lord Aeris said with a smile on her face pulling out two chakrams. “Who better than I to orchestrate an accident?”

“My whip could create a rockslide.” Lord Hibernis said cracking his whip on the table. “Let me go my lord.” Lord Mortem processed this, and then smiled.

“Assassin.” As soon as he said this, a person in a white kabuki mask and flowing black hair landed from the rafters, and stood right next to Lord Mortem. “You are to accompany these members of my council to bring the Winter Maiden to me. She must be kept alive. Everybody else must die. No survivors, no witnesses.” The masked assassin nodded and moved towards the exit.”

“So, I guess we should follow her?” Lord Fulgur hesitated.

“What else are you supposed to do fool?” Lord Mortem said clearly annoyed. “Remember, no harm is to befall the Winter Maiden…yet.”  
  


As they set up for the fight on top of the cliff, Lord Fulgur looked closely at his scroll.

“So this is the kid that Dr. Strohl wants to inherit absolute power? He can hardly lead his own team!”

“It is not balance he seeks in the child Lord Fulgur, it is power.” Lord Hibernis said as he looked out over the edge with a pair of binoculars.

“I guess you’re right. Any sign of the transport yet?”

“I’ve got a visual. It’s about 500 yards, and I think you have a three mile-per-hour wind blowing to the north. Think you can make the shot?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I couldn’t.” As soon as he said this, Lord Fulgur pulled out a small briefcase, and morphed it into a giant bow. He then drew his arm back like he was pulling back an arrow, but nothing was there. Then, when he finished his draw back, a giant bolt of lightning appeared where the arrow would go. He lined up his shot, observed the aircraft for another few seconds, and nodded his head. With the signal given, Hibernis, Aeris, and the assassin jumped off the side of the cliff and started running towards the nearby cliffside. Fulgur waited two more seconds, smiled, and then released the lightning bolt, sending is straight towards the aircraft. He then jumped down after his comrades, still smiling, he simply said,

“This should be fun.”


	24. Episode 2: Chapter 8: Complications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 8 of Episode 2 of Order of Seasons

Christy was just standing there on the airship not sure what to do. Ty and Vergil were catching up by themselves in the back, Jacob was brooding, and the maiden Zimara was just standing there, not saying anything.

“Man, this is just boring.” Brooklyn said sitting down next to where Christy was standing.

“You’re telling me? I’ve been pretty much stuck here in the background for who knows how long.”

“At least people pay attention to you. I’ve honestly been just bored out of my mind for weeks. I mean, I think Jacob has all but forgotten about our rivalry. Also, he’s just become so obsessed with his family recently I’ve kind of dropped off into the background.”

“Yeah. I mean outside of just being around Evan and doing some fighting, I really haven’t had a lot happen to me recently.”

“What do you guys even do as a couple to begin with?”

“Well, we started out doing some of the traditional stereotypical things. We kissed a lot, we hugged a lot, heck I even convinced Evan to skip through a field of tall grass with me. Granted I almost got lost in the tall grass but still.”

“Wow. That seems kind of dumb and pointless.”

“But we did it together. That’s what made it special.”

“I guess. But don’t you ever feel like you’ve just been left behind for no good reason?”

“How do you mean?” 

“The thing is, all the problems we’ve had to deal with this past year have revolved around either the Grover siblings, Miles, or Jacob. We’ve kind of just been standing there like we should just take this all in stride.”

“Are you saying we shouldn’t be there for our friends?”

“I didn’t say that, but….” As Brooklyn said this, something impacted the airship, causing the lights to go out, then start flashing like a traffic accident. Alarms started going off as the ship began wobbling.

“The ship’s going down!” The pilot yelled from the cockpit. “I’m going to try and put her down in that gorge over there!”

“Are you kidding me?” Vergil yelled. “We’ll be sitting ducks down there!”

“No choice sir! It’s either land in the gorge or crash into the mountains to our right.” Vergil slammed his hand against the wall in anger at the pilot’s explanation.

“Get us into the gorge safely pilot. If something goes wrong, let us know. I’m not risking the Winter Maiden’s life just because of some freak accident.”

“Yes sir.” With that said, the pilot pushed a few buttons and began shutting down several engines and adjusting the wings to allow the airship to glide down into the gorge below. As the airship continued downwards, everybody in the back pulled down the emergency seats and strapped themselves in. Since there were no windows, nobody could see what was happening out the sides. But they could certainly feel it. As the airship got lower and lower to the ground, it began hitting some of the stray boulders on the sides of the gorge. Then the entire airship shook and rattled as it finally began sliding along the rocks of the riverbed at the very bottom of the gorge. Christy clasped the safety straps like she was riding a roller coaster, only this time she was actually trying not to die. Finally, the airship reached the end of its skid, and the pilot opened up the door that wasn’t trapped against the ground. As everybody climbed out, they realized that not only were they trapped inside this gorge, but the airship was damaged beyond repair. One of the engines had been crushed and the left wing was sitting in the river about seventy yards away from the rest of the airship. Collecting themselves, Vergil pulled out his Scroll and started walking around.

“No good.” He said in frustration. “We’re too far out from civilization. I can’t get a signal.”

“What about the airship’s on board radio? Couldn’t that get a message out?” Jacob asked as he helped Brooklyn out of the airship.

“Not likely.” The pilot said as he inspected the internal damage. “Pretty much everything and anything electrical has been completely fried. I’m afraid we’re going to have to walk to find help.”

“Well that’s fantastic.” Brooklyn said slamming her fist against a nearby rock. “Any idea where to find civilization around here?”

“I might be able to find somebody.” Zimara said as she floated out of the airship. “If I can get high enough into the sky, I might be able to see if there is a town either inhabited or otherwise where we might find shelter at least for the night. Besides, it’s not like we would have any problems fighting Grimm. I mean…” before she could finish, a sudden flash of light came flying down and struck her right in the chest, causing her to fall forward and start floating slightly above ground as an electric field floated around her torso. As soon as this happened, everybody drew their weapons and started looking around to try and see where the flash came from.

“What the heck was that?” Christy yelled more scared than confused.

“Not sure. Keep your guard up though. It may be that we are being hunted.” As soon as Vergil said this, another flash of light hit Ty straight in the chest, but it did little to nothing as he just stood there.

“I see them. Looks like a user of lightning dust. And he’s not alone.” Ty said as he pointed to the top of the cliff on the opposite side of the river. Everybody looked up to see four people each with their own weapons suddenly jump down to the gorge below. The giant cracked his whip in the air and all of a sudden he had rocks sticking out of the cliff face to slide on and slow his decent. The woman with the chakrams pointed her weapons down towards the ground creating a blast of air slowly letting herself down to the riverbed. Then a woman wearing a kabuki mask leapt off the side and stuck her sword into the side of the cliff and simply slid down that way. Finally, the person who shot the lightning did a perfect double flip, sent a charge of electricity to the ground and slowed his decent until he landed next to his comrades. Nothing was said for a few seconds until Vergil finally spoke up.

“Who are you idiots?” They all sort of chuckled at this. 

“Yeesh. I thought the great Demon Slayer Vergil would have a few more manners than that, but what can you expect with a name like that?” The woman laughed with a sick smile on her face.

“Calm yourself my friend.” The man who controlled the lightning said. “Let us at least be polite. I am Lord Fulgur. These are my comrades Lords Aeris and Hibernis.”

“Who’s the weirdo in the mask?” Ty asked pointing his sword towards the stranger.

“An assassin. Nothing more, nothing less.” Fulgur said taking a few steps forward. “Now seeing as you’re all about to die, could you please make this easy for us?”

“Wow, did he really just say that?” Brooklyn said morphing her weapon into scimitar form. With that said, Lord Fulgur smiled, and created another lightning arrow out of thin air, almost catching everybody off guard. Launching it straight towards Christy, she had to jump out of the way to avoid getting electrocuted. Fulgur pulled back again and launched another bolt, this time towards Jacob, who deflected it with his sword into the cliffside, causing a small amount of rocks to fall down the side of the mountain. Wasting no time, Vergil leapt across the river and started fighting Hibernis, knocking him back a few paces. Meanwhile, Ty and Christy ran out across a shallow ford towards Lord Fulgur, and swung their weapons down onto his bow. Instead of trying to block their attacks, he simply pulled his weapon down and out of lock with his opponents, and took a few steps back while he made his weapon more of a quarterstaff with electric power flowing through the entire weapon. As soon as he accomplished this he leapt forward and took his opponents head on. Meanwhile, Brooklyn and Jacob were about to cross as well, but Aeris leapt across first and started fighting Jacob. Before Brooklyn could try and flank Aeris, the assassin appeared right in front of her as if out of nowhere and began fighting her using twin blades that extended from her bracelets.

“Where did you get that technology?” Brooklyn asked as she parried a few blows. The assassin said nothing, and continued to push forward on the attack.

“Fine. Be a jerk.” Brooklyn said as she started getting more and more angry.  
  
  
  
  
Vergil continued to clash with Hibernis, trying to use his sword to catch his opponent’s whip and disarm him. However, despite Vergil having the weapon advantage, it was clear that Hibernis was not trying to go for close quarters combat. Instead, he kept striking the cliff behind him with his whip causing several more rocks to fall. Before Vergil could launch another attack at Hibernis, he picked up a rock and punched it, causing it to become several smaller stones. Then, by simply raising his hand, Hibernis caused all the rocks to begin floating in a way similar to Pyrrha’s control of magnets. Vergil stopped his attack and raised his weapon in defense as Hiberins sent the rocks flying at crazy speeds. While he was able to defend himself from most of them, there were plenty more that hit him and knocked him back onto his back and into the riverbank. Vergil tried to get up quickly, but Hibernis landed a devastating knee attack on him before he could do so.

“That’s it.” Vergil said short of breath. “Time to go ham.” With that said, Vergil pulled back his right arm and hit Hibernis with a punch that sent him flying into the cliff wall. As he got up, he noticed that Hibernis wasn’t going to be getting up anytime soon, so he turned his attention to Fulgur. He rushed forward looking for a chance to punch him with his back turned, but as he swung his fist, a giant gust of air knocked his hand off target, causing Vergil to lose balance. As he stumbled towards the cliffside, he noticed that Aeris had taken a quick second out of fighting Jacob and sent a gust of air across the river to knock him off balance. The force of the gust knocked Vergil into the wall, which caught the attention of Fulgur, who quickly turned around and zapped Vergil with his staff until he was unconscious. Before he could turn back around however, Christy and Ty both managed to land huge hits on him and sent him flying up the riverbank, knocking him out in the process. Realizing they now had the advantage, they quickly ran over to where their teammates were fighting across the river.  
  
  
  
  
  
Brooklyn couldn’t believe it. She was being outclassed by some weirdo in a kabuki mask. It wasn’t like she was having an off day or something; this person was just completely reading her. Trying to get a quick turnaround, she jumped back towards the airship wreckage and morphed her weapon to rifle form to try and go for more of a ranged fight than close quarters. As she landed on the airship, she tried to take a shot at her opponent, but then the pilot appeared out of nowhere and ran into her line of sight. Having to quickly adjust her shot, she ended up knocking herself back with the recoil, causing her to hit her head against a rock and almost lose consciousness. Meanwhile, the pilot continued to try and escape as he ran past Aeris and Jacob who were still sparring.

“Ah. Pardon me for a second.” As soon as Aeris said this, she sent out two massive blasts of air. One to send Jacob flying across the river, and the other to knock the pilot to his knees. Walking over to where the pilot now lay dazed, Aeris raised up one of her chakrams and didn’t say a word as she sent the weapon straight clean through his head. As the limp body of the pilot fell to the ground, Aeris started laughing manically. “First kill is mine fools!” She turned to see that not only was nobody paying attention, but two of her teammates had been completely knocked out. “Ugh, they can never get the job done right can they?” But then she noticed that the assassin was starting to walk towards Brooklyn with the intent of killing her. “Oh!” Aeris said in excitement. “This should be fun!” She started walking towards Brooklyn and the assassin, but before she could take another step forward, she felt an intense cold around her legs. Looking back, she saw that Jacob had gotten back up and had thrown an ice dust dagger to immobilize her.

“Forget about me witch?”

“Kid, I wish I could!” Ignoring her last comment, Jacob rushed forward and hit her square with his sword, knocking her out of the ice and into the side of the cliff, causing her aura to shatter and knock her out. Wasting no time, Jacob then started running to where the assassin was about to impale Brooklyn. But even if he activated his time dilation state, he wasn’t going to reach her in time. But then, before the assassin could strike, a projectile hit the assassin right in the back of the head. Turning to see what had hit her, all the assassin could see was Ty swinging his sword at her, sending her flying to where Aeris was knocked out as well. They all convened at the airship and helped Brooklyn get back on her feet.

“You okay?” Jacob asked.

“I’ve had worse.” Brooklyn replied.

“Good. Well we’ve lost our pilot, and I don’t know how long that stasis field is going to affect Zimara, so I say we grab her and Vergil, get as far upstream as we can and…” but before he could finish, Jacob was struck square in the chest with another lightning bolt arrow. Before the other three could react, they too were struck by lightning arrows. They all fell to the ground, unconscious. An annoyed Lord Fulgur walked over to help up Lord Hibernis.

“Seriously, these kids take so much out of me that I can’t even make a proper “kill” arrow to subdue them.”  
  
  
  
  
After throwing Vergil in amongst the rest of the unconscious bodies, they then went to grab Jacob.

“So what now?” Lord Hibernis asked.

“We follow our orders.” Lord Fulgur said. “We replace the body of the Winter Maiden with the corpse that our scientists prepared, you cause the rockslide that will bury them all alive, and it will look like a freak accident of nature.”

“Very well then.”

“Hey guys?” Lord Aeris yelled. “Doesn’t this kid look kind of like Dr. Strohl?” As soon as they heard her mention this, they walked over to where Aeris was inspecting the face of the unconscious Jacob. Lord Fulgur pulled out his Scroll and held it up next to Jacob’s face.

“It’s an exact match. Looks like the Strohl kid just happened to land right in our hands. What fortuitous timing.” With a flick of his wrist, the lightning field surrounding him caused him to seem more resting than bound. “We shall deliver him to Lord Mortem immediatly.”

“But weren’t our orders no survivors?” Lord Aeris asked. “If they don’t find the kids body amongst the wreckage, won’t they start getting a bit more suspicious?”

“Don’t worry about it Lord Aeris. I’m sure that Lord Mortem will be more than pleased that we managed not only to deliver him the Winter Maiden, but also the potential heir to the power that Ozpin wields.” With that said, Lord Fulgur pulled out his Scroll and made a quick call. “This is Lord Fulgur. Mission accomplished, but with one slight complication. Will discuss further when we have returned to the base. Lord Fulgur out.” He put his Scroll away and started moving downstream where an airship began making its descent into the gorge. “Join us once you’ve finished your work here Lord Hibernis.”

“I won’t be long Fulgur.” As he said this, Lord Aeris also left with Lord Fulgur towards the airship, but the assassin still stood there next to Lord Hibernis.

“There is no need for you to be here assassin. Join your lords on the airship.” However, the assassin didn’t even budge an inch at Lord Hibernis’ command. Simply shrugging it off, Lord Hibernis leapt up above the airship and cracked his whip on the cliffside several times, causing a huge rockslide to bury and crush the airship below. As he landed, the assassin still didn’t move an inch.

“Lord Hibernis!” Lord Fulgur yelled from the airship. “What’s the holdup?”

“The assassin is just standing here doing nothing. Any suggestions?”

“Assassin!” Lord Fulgur yelled. “Wheels up in two minutes! Do what you need to and then join us. Otherwise, we shall leave you to your own devices.” As soon as he said this, Lord Hibernis turned and headed back to the airship. As soon as he was out of earshot, the assassin walked in front of the rock pile, and placed a silver necklace on the ground.

“If you are who I think you are and you are indeed alive, I know you will seek me out and bring this to me.” After saying her piece, the assassin walked over to the airship, got on board and they all took off heading west towards Vacuo.

“Say, any new info on the Restoration Tournament?” Lord Aeris asked. “We missed the rest of the fights after that weird blondie beat the kid from Shade Academy.”

“I’ll check.” Lord Fulgur said pulling out his Scroll. “It looks like all three Vale teams made it through, which includes the blond, and there’s one more team from Haven still alive in the tournament.”

“Ugh. At this rate it’s going to be a Vale VS Vale fight. That seems boring.”

“It isn’t about entertainment Lord Aeris. It’s about knowing who the strongest of each kingdom is so we can better prepare our troops for when we launch our invasion in three years.”

“Well I want some entertainment!” Lord Aeris said as she sat down pouting in a corner.  
  
  
  
  
The rocks continued to sit there in silence. Ten minutes passed. Twenty minutes passed. Then, all of a sudden, a large explosion blasted all the rocks away at the top, and Brooklyn emerged from the wreckage, having used her shield as a way to keep the rocks from falling on top of them, and then created an aura explosion large enough to free her friends. As soon as she was out of the airship, she collapsed from exhaustion since she had just spent up the last of her energy to save her friends. Christy managed to catch her before she fell to the ground.

“You okay there champ?” She asked Brooklyn.

“I feel like a rainbow.” Brooklyn said as she dropped her hand to the ground. As soon as she did, she noticed that there was a necklace sitting on the ground in front of the wreckage. As she went over to examine it, Vergil made his way out of the airship.

“Well, that could have gone better. But I guess I really do have to give it to your team leader, he does know how to pick his friends. Hey, by the way, where is he?” Everybody started looking around and realized that he wasn’t among their number.

“Why would they take Jacob?” Christy asked. “I thought the Maiden was their target?”

“Maybe they got new orders while we were unconscious?” Ty suggested.

“Perhaps.” Vergil said. “But then again, there isn’t that great of a signal down here in this gorge. I mean, unless they had their own personal mini tower available to them, I don’t know how this could have been accomplished.”

“I think the bigger question right now is where the heck is Jacob and where can we find him?” Christy yelled starting to get worried.

“I can’t say for sure Ms. Curtiss. They could have taken him anywhere and we don’t have any way of knowing where that may be.”

“Actually, I think we do.” All eyes turned to Brooklyn as she held up a piece of paper that was attached to the back of the necklace she had picked up off the ground. “I think these are coordinates for where we need to go.” Vergil walked over to her and looked at the paper himself.

“Well, I don’t know pin point exactly where this is, but this looks like these coordinates are directly in the middle of Vacuo.”

“Vacuo” Ty said in surprise. “What could possibly in Vacuo related to this?”

“Perhaps answers my son. But I believe that our answer and our mission lie at these coordinates. For now, we shall begin walking out of this gorge and towards the general direction of Vacuo. As soon as we get better reception, I will figure out exactly where we are and where we need to be going, and what we shall do from there. Now, until we find your friend, I am the leader of this team. Is that understood?” 

“Of course.” Christy said with confidence.

“Absolutely.” Ty said with determination. However, Brooklyn remained silent.

“Is something wrong Ms. McPhearson?” Vergil asked.

“Look, for starters, just call us by our real names. And second, yes I heard you and let’s go before we waste even more time.”

“Well said. Let’s get going.” With that said, everybody started walking downstream to try and get out of the gorge. Brooklyn took an extra second to get up and took another look at the necklace she found.

“How did she get this?”


	25. Episode 2: Chapter 9: Warring Forces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 9 of Episode 2 of Order of Seasons

Miles was sitting in the locker room getting ready for the next match. They had already spun the wheel and it was determined that he would be facing Pyrrha. As he sat there, he didn’t do that much. He was already dressed and his weapons were in their sheaths. He was simply doing breathing exercises.

“Take a deep breath.” He said to himself as he inhaled and exhaled. “Focus on the calmness of the lake. Clear your mind of all emotion.”

“Not a bad idea, but emotions can help you make better decisions in the field.” Miles turned around to see Blake standing over by the door.

“Is the whole posse here or is it just you?”

“Just me for a change. I think all the lovebirds are too busy having fun to bug you before your fight with Pyrrha.”

“Am I correct to assume that Jaune is doing the same thing with Pyrrha right now?”

“Yeah. Only difference is they’re actually dating.”

“Well duh.” The two of them sat in silence for a few moments. “Well, I’d best get going then.” Miles stood up and walked over to the platform.

“Hey, do you think we should discuss, you know, what we are right now and what we’re going to be in the future?” Miles paused at Blake’s question.

“We’ll talk about it once either I’m the champion or I’ve been defeated. But for right now, I really need to focus.”

“Running away from this one again….” Blake said with a sigh. Miles turned around, walked over to Blake and gave her a big hug.

“Blake, I want to talk about what we are more than anything. But right here, right now, I need focus absolute.” Blake snickered at Miles’ cheesy remark.

“You’re such a nerd.”

“Well part of having focus absolute is being a fool absolute.” They both laughed as Miles walked over to the platform as it began to rise. “Hey Blake.”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.” As he said this, the platform rose up to the arena. Blake smiled as she watched him disappear into the loud stadium.

“I know.”  
  
  
  
  
Natalie opened her mouth as Ruby attempted to toss a piece of popcorn into her mouth. After a few misses, Ruby managed to get one into her mouth. After throwing her fists in the air in victory, Natalie ate it right up. But as soon as that got boring, they just started tearing right into the whole box. Yang and Nathan were enjoying a couple of sodas and Weiss and Neptune were walking back with some bottles of water for everybody else. As they sat down, Blake joined the rest of them.

“Have a good time talking to your boyfriend down there Blake?” Yang said jokingly. Not saying anything, Blake sat down next to her friends and grabbed one of the water bottles that Weiss had gotten.

“Nothing to say cat girl?” Nathan said leaning towards her. Still, Blake said nothing. “Well she’s not confirming nor denying, so where does that leave us with the jokes?” Nathan asked Yang.

“I guess in a kind of limbo state? I mean, those two were our primary source of humor. And we can't make fun of Weiss and Neptune, because the ice queen would probably freeze our mouths shut if we made fun of her and Neptune more than we already have.”

“Has she ever actually done that before?” Nathan asked concerned.

“Don’t tempt me.” Weiss said. “So, any predictions on the match everybody?”

“I’ve got my money on Pyrrha.” Ruby said. “She managed to stay alive somehow holding off Cinder last year, that means something right?”

“Yeah, but Miles’ semblance might give him an advantage.” Natalie said. “Magnetism is one thing, but the fact that Miles can control the strength of gravitational pull on anything gives him a bit of an edge on Pyrrha.”

“But in turn, when he uses his Semblance on others, it drains his aura much faster and has a devastating impact on himself physically.” Evan said leaning forward. “But since he can use his abilities on himself much easier, I think this battle is going to come down to more maneuverability than power.”

“I agree.” Ren said crossing his arms in his seat. “Pyrrha’s abilities are indeed impressive, but Miles is not to be taken lightly.”

“Why can’t we just determine who wins by seeing which one hits the other harder?!” Nora yelled in excitement.

“Technically that’s what this is.” Ren replied. “But not everything comes down to power Nora. These two are arguably the most tactical warriors here at Beacon, and this fight will come down to who thinks two moves ahead and who falls behind.

“Not a bad theory.” Weiss said as she opened up a bottle of her own. “Any thoughts Blake?” Still saying nothing, Blake simply leaned forward waiting for Miles and Pyrrha to meet in the center of the arena and begin their battle.  
  
  
  
As the two of them stood there, both sides were completely different as far as their emotions. Pyrrha was smiling and waving to the audience, while Miles was simply standing there, eyes closed and his hands on his weapons. As the center of the stage rose up into the air, Miles got into a more battle ready stance, as did Pyrrha, bringing her sword and shield to her hands with magnetism. The horn sounded to signify the beginning of the match, and neither one of them made an attacking move. They just started circling each other, trying to get a reading on the situation. Then, Miles made the first move with an x-slash motion with his swords at Pyrrha, which she blocked with her shield and immediately attempted to strike him in the legs with her sword. Jumping out of the way of the attack, Miles then began trading blows with Pyrrha, neither side really getting any hits in. After about three minutes of parrying and slashing, their aura levels were still sitting at around 85% each. Miles then decided to try a different tactic. He rushed forward with his swords in a position where he knew that Pyrrha would have no choice but to re-direct them with her Semblance. As he lunged forward with his swords swinging down, Pyrrha attempted to jump to the side while directing the swords in the opposite direction of where she was jumping. But all of a sudden, she felt like she didn’t have as much control over Miles’ swords as she had before. They were much heavier than she anticipated. As the swords came crashing down, they clipped her on the shoulder pretty hard, and knocked her aura down to about 55%. Looking over at the impact the swords had on the arena floor, she noticed a huge dent in the ground that wasn’t there before. She realized that he had increased the pull of gravity on his swords and arms to try and create a much more devastating blow and make it much harder for her to keep the swords from doing damage. To try and change the momentum, she jumped back towards the edge and morphed her sword into rifle form and fired several shots trying to keep him at a distance. Reducing the gravitational pull on his whole body, Miles started running around the outside of the arena getting closer and closer to where Pyrrha was standing. As he got closer, Pyrrha quickly morphed her weapon to spear form and threw it at Miles trying to knock him off the stage. But as she was doing this, Miles also threw his white sword towards Pyrrha. The spear caught the hood on Miles’ coat, while the sword hit Pyrrha square in the gut, sending her falling over the side, and she couldn’t grab the edge in time as she fell down towards the out of bounds area. As she looked over, she saw Miles falling as well, but then stop in mid-air and start floating back up so he could grab the ledge and pull himself back up. Realizing that she had lost, Pyrrha simply sighed, got her bearings and landed perfectly on the ground below the higher arena circle. The buzzer sounded signifying that she was out of the competition, and Miles had advanced. The crowd cheered as Miles got back up on the stage and pumped his fist in victory. He felt extremely weak as he walked over to the platform leading down into the locker room. As the platform landed, he stumbled a bit towards one of the benches and almost collapsed in a heap as he grabbed a water bottle. He looked up to see Blake walking in and then suddenly start running towards him.

“Oh my gosh! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine Blake. Just a bit wiped out, that’s all.”

“What happened? I mean, you didn’t really use your abilities to attack Pyrrha that much.

“No, but by stopping myself in mid-air while trying to float back up to the ring after channeling a ton of energy into my swords, I guess it kind of wiped me out.”

“I see. Well, let me get you a refill on that water.”

“Thanks Blake.” Blake ran off to refill the water bottle while Miles checked his Scroll. Blake walked back and handed him the bottle.

“Everything all right?”

“Yeah, it’s just that I haven’t gotten any messages from Ty yet. He said that they were going to land around the time of the fights yesterday, but he never sent me anything. I just hope nothing’s gone wrong.”

“Relax. If he fell out of a plane I’m sure he would react to it like he was falling into a field of pillows.”

“Nah, more like a field of nothingness, because that’s all he would feel.” They both laughed at this, Miles kind of spitting up a little water as he did so, causing a bit more laughter from Blake.

“Hey, you’ve got something on your face there. Mind if I get it off?”

“Thanks. You got a towel laying around or something or….” But before Miles could finish, the split second he turned his head, he realized the cat girl was right in his face and was pressing her lips against his. Not sure how to react, he pulled back super quickly falling of the bench.

“I’m so sorry Miles!” Blake said flustered. “It’s just that in the heat of the moment I just reacted and you looked so goofy and I just….”

“Blake.” Miles said getting up and placing his hands on her shoulders. “If you want me to forgive you, do it again. Only this time with me expecting it.” Blake looked up at Miles.

“You mean it?”

“Well I haven’t run off screaming bloody murder yet have I?” Blake giggled, and leaned in towards Miles once again.

“Hey guys! What’s up?” They both jumped back and looked over to see Sun walking in with his weapon ready to go.

“Oh not much Sun! Just talking!” Miles yelled extremely awkwardly.

“Yes exactly! Just talking!” Blake said, even more flustered.

“Well, you two definitely have a strange way of talking. I’m heading up for my match. Prepare to witness greatness!” As Sun said this, he pumped his fist in the air as the platform rose up, causing a huge reaction of excitement from the crowd.

“He’s fighting Yang right?” Miles asked.

“Yep.” Blake said in response.

“He’s totally dead isn’t he?”

“Yep.”

“I’m fighting Yang in the finals aren’t I?”

“Yep.”

“Well then. That’s going to be fun. Soaring Ninja 2?”

“Wait, weren’t we in the middle of something?”

“By going off to play video games, it pretty much guarantees our crazy friends won’t interrupt us. Plus, we already know who’s going to win, so why watch it drag out?”

“Eh, good point. But I’m holding you to that non-sneak attack kiss.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Miles said putting an arm around Blake as the two of them walked out.  
  
  
  
  
“All right, everybody remember the plan?” Vergil said.

“I’m on it dad.” Ty said grasping his sword.

“I’m raring to go.” Brooklyn said.

“I hope we don’t mess this up.”

“We’ll be fine Christy.” Vergil smiled as he pulled out his weapon. “Ty? Light em up.” Ty nodded, pulled out his bazooka, and launched several projectiles towards a reinforced door that was blocking the entrance to an underground bunker right next to an airstrip. As soon as the rockets exploded, everybody rushed forward into what awaited beyond the gaping debris.


	26. Episode 2: Chapter 10: Mind of the Beast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 10 of Episode 2 of Order of Seasons

Jacob couldn’t see anything at first. As he tried to get up, he realized that he couldn’t as some form of straps bound his arms. 

“He’s awake. Bring him in.” A loud voice commanded. Jacob struggled against his restraints even more, but then was struck by what he assumed was a hand.

“Really?” The stranger said still. “This is the one that the doctor thought could take my place? He’s nothing but a child.”

“Give him a chance.” The voice sounded familiar to Jacob, and he recognized it as Lord Aeris. “It means he’s straight as an arrow, and has yet to reach the full potential of his power!”

“He’d better, or else this was a huge mistake for our secrecy.”

“He is worth that and more Master Odi.” A new voice chimed in to the conversation that Jacob recognized immediately.

“Father.”

“Why is my son blindfolded and bound to this chair?”

“It was under my orders doctor.” Lord Aeris said. “He did try to kill me and I think he might try again unless you talk some sense into him and convince him not to.”

“He’s still my son and potentially could be standing amongst you and the other lords as a member of the High Council.”

“He still isn’t loyal to the cause yet. Just look at him!” Suddenly, Jacob felt like something was being ripped off his face as his eyes had to adjust for the sudden brightness. “He didn’t even know we existed until today! How terrified do you think he is right now?”

“I will replace that fear with obedience. Now leave me be, so that I may talk to my son.”

“I’ll let it slide for now doctor, but next time, remember who you are addressing. Come along Master Odi.” With that said, Lord Aeris and Leo left the room leaving Jacob strapped to the chair and his father sitting down in front of him.

“What is the meaning of this father? I don’t respond to your demands and you send some goons after me to bring me to your presence?”

“You misunderstand. If not for me, you would be dead with the rest of your teammates back in that gorge.”

“Dead?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” Jacob yelled at the top of his lungs as he continued to fight his restraints.

“I didn’t do anything. Your friends were unfortunate casualties, but they were in the way of the prize that Lord Mortem, master of the Order of the Four Seasons, seeks.”

“Lord Mortem? You of all people answer to somebody?” 

“It’s difficult to explain everything from only certain points, so I’ll start at the beginning. Of course you know the story of the Four Maidens I am sure?”

“Yeah, who hasn’t heard that old nursery rhyme?”

“And of course given the events of last year in Vale, the whole world now knows that the Maidens are indeed real, and so is the power they command.”

“So what, this Lord Mortem guy wants to round them all up and make them his slaves or something?”

“No. Slaves can revolt. Instead, he will take the aura of the Maidens and give it to his most loyal soldiers.”

“Take their aura? He has access to the Atlas technology, doesn’t he?” Suddenly, Jacob’s father punched him in the gut.

“So many pointless questions. Silence yourself and let me explain everything fool. To continue on your tangent though, he doesn’t exactly need the Atlas technology in order to take the power for himself.”

“How do you mean?”

“There’s a reason why he is the supreme lord of the Order of the Four Seasons. Not only does he possess amazing strength, but also he has the Semblance to extract aura from other beings.” Jacob eyes widened as his father said this.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Lord Hibernis was walking down one of the corridors looking to try and find a quiet place to get a quick rest after what had happened earlier. As he walked past the security room, he saw a few lights were going off. He walked in quickly to see several people frantically going around pushing buttons.

“What’s going on?” He asked.

“We aren’t sure yet Lord Hibernis” one of the security guards said. “We’ve had a few breaches of security around the upper entrance.”

“It’s probably just an animal.”

“Usually when an animal enters the security field, we are able to tell it’s an animal because they don’t usually stay in one place. Whatever this is, it’s not moving and is almost directly by the front door.”

“Send a team up. I’m not going to risk a bunch of lucky Huntsmen blowing our entire operation.”

“Sir? Multiple projectiles are heading straight for the front gate?” 

“Projectiles? What kind?” All of a sudden, the ceiling shook, and a few strands of dirt fell down through the cracks. “Get as many troops as possible to the front gate. Whoever these idiots are, they aren’t going to be here long.”

  
  
Vergil, Brooklyn and Ty all rushed through the smoke created by the explosion. Ty was on point, so when all of the enemies guns started firing, Ty was able to take it head on, and Brooklyn was able to block whatever got past him with her shield. They then started taking down several waves of basic soldiers in their path as they started heading towards what looked like stairwells leading deeper into the base.

“Remember the plan!” Vergil yelled as he took over point. “This isn’t a game, so KILL your enemy!” Suddenly, as they got closer to the door, a wall of earth shot up out of the ground and blocked the path. Looking over to the side, they saw Lord Hibernis having created the wall after striking the ground with his fist. Then, he pressed a button on his whip, causing it to straighten out and cause a few spikes to pop out.

“So what, you wield a whip that can transform into a mace?” Vergil asked.

“To fight swords like yours, I need something to counter their attacks. Now then, I suggest you surrender now.”

“But we just got here!” Vergil said mocking his opponent.

“Then you will die.” Hibernis immediately rushed towards Vergil and began fighting him. Ty and Brooklyn started rushing towards him to help fight, but then Lord Aeris dropped from the ceiling and knocked them both back with a large gust of wind. The two of them slowly got up and were almost immediately surrounded by enemy soldiers.

“Come on Brooklyn! For Christy!”

“For Christy!” As they both yelled this, they started fighting off all the grunt soldiers surrounding them, and managed to get back to Lord Aeris before she got to Vergil.

“So, the little one with the axes didn’t make it, did she? Such an annoyance that you all didn’t die with her. I mean seriously, we leave anybody alive and they dedicate their entire existence to trying to find and destroy us. It’s just a hassle really.”

“You don’t have the right to talk about her like that!” Ty yelled as he swung his sword right at Aeris who dodged it easily.  
  
  
  
Vergil and Hibernis were pretty evenly matched, given now that Hibernis could stand and face Vegril with an equal weapon. Deciding to try and take it one step further, he jumped back super quickly and stomped his foot on the ground, causing several rocks to start floating around him in a circle around his waist. Rushing back towards Vergil, he immediately started launching the rocks towards Vergil at crazy speeds. This caught him off guard and sent him a few paces back, giving Hibernis the chance to rush forward and start landing a few blows. Suddenly, Vergil managed to find some good footing, and blocked an incoming attack from Hibernis, and then launched him across the room with a punch.

“Ugh, how do you keep doing that?” Hibernis said as he tried to collect himself as Vergil started walking over.

“Seriously? I’m one of the most recognizable Huntsmen in the world and you didn’t know my Semblance was increased power output through my hands?”

“I guess that one did slip my mind a little bit.”

“Forget it. Killing you will be a good step in finding the team leader you kidnapped, and a good old fashioned piece of revenge for killing their teammate.”

“Back off big guy, unless you want to see what the inside of your kid’s skull looks like.” Vergil turned and saw that Lord Aeris had knocked out Brooklyn and had Ty in a headlock with her chakrams right next to his head, and he looked like he had been badly injured. Dropping his weapon, Vergil fell to his knees and placed his hands on his head as guards immediately put some restraints on him. They then chained up Brooklyn and Ty, and lead them to the stairwell blocked by the giant wall that Lord Hibernis created.

“My lord, if you would be so kind?”

“Of course. Just give me a second.” Lord Hibernis was still struggling to get up from the attack he had received from Vergil. “Take the demon slayer to the dungeons with his companions, and give him cuffs that completely immobilize his hands. I will not risk him pulling down the cell door like tissue paper.” Everybody nodded as they began taking them down the stairs as Lord Hibernis removed the wall. “You there! Fang grunt!” Lord Hibernis yelled at a small blond soldier walking towards the stairwell.

“Uh, yes sir?”

“Take this down to the armory” he said handing her his whip. “I want the boys down there to try and give this thing a better upgrade for the mace version of the weapon.”

“Yes sir!” With that, the White Fang soldier walked down the stairwell saw the prisoners being taken even further down into the depths, then walked out one of the doors that was labeled “communications”.

  
  
  
  
  
“Aura absorption? How exactly does it work? Does he absorb a persons aura and add it to his strength?” Jacob asked bewildered.

“Not exactly. He can absorb a person’s aura and add their power to his yes, but he can only control one at a time. He can’t just go up to random people willy-nilly and absorb their aura and become stronger. Rather, he has a choice on what to do with the aura. Either let it become apart of himself and become stronger or weaker depending on the aura, or let it go free and let the person pass into the next life.”

“People die from him absorbing aura? How is that possible? People have had their aura depleted to zero before and they haven’t died.”

“The depletion of aura comes from physical exhaustion and violent action. However, aura itself is tied to the soul, so tearing it from another being is pretty much the same as tearing the soul of a person out of their body. Now he does have the option to return a person’s aura to their body, but I have never witnessed that level of mercy from him in my time here in the order.”

“So that’s why you had them drag me here. To give the strongest aura of the Strohl’s to your precious leader.”

“Not quite. You see, Lord Mortem has been creating a grand plan for some time now. As I said, he has been collecting the aura of the Maidens, but I haven’t mentioned the purpose yet. He plans on giving the power of the Maidens to each of the members of his High Council. He himself already wields the power of the dark dragon, he has promised the seasons to some of those you have already met, and he has promised the power of the dark sister to Adam Taurus.”

“Wait, you work for the White Fang? But you aren’t a Faunus.”

“Fool. The White Fang bends a knee to the Order of the Four Seasons, not the other way around. And Adam is the highest emissary between the two organizations. He may not be the leader of the White Fang, but his stance in the Order gives him much more power than he ever would have received by staying purely White Fang. And now, Lord Mortem’s plan is almost complete. In three years time, the Vytal festival will return to Atlas, the capital of the largest military force in the world. There, Lord Mortem will instigate a coup. Our armies are ready for battle even now. And then, he will bring them to their knees, and gain control of the last two pieces of the puzzle he needs for his new world order to rise.”

“What last two pieces? Doesn’t he already have the Four Maidens under his thumb?”

“There are two other pieces to the soul of the wizard.”

“The soul of the wizard?”

“The tales change from age to age, but the one part that always stays the same is that the old wizard granted the last of his magical power to four maidens. But before that happened, he gave birth to two children. Immortals who each carried a piece of their father’s soul within them. And when we launch our attack on Atlas, we shall gain the last two pieces.”

“How do you even know where they are?”

“The children of the sun were difficult to find, but look for them in their natural habitats, and then it becomes child’s play.”

“That doesn’t answer my question…”

“The child of daylight was simple enough. He is your headmaster at your precious Beacon Academy.”

“Ozpin? He’s immortal? But he’s only been in the school’s system for seven years.”

“He constantly changes names and certain staff members to keep a low profile, but the Order has been around long enough to notice. As for the child of night, that one we shall find in response to the attack we shall unleash. Cinder almost had it right when she created absolute chaos in Vale. She managed to awake the dragon, and almost had the beast under her control long enough to summon its dark master, and the sister to Ozpin. But she failed to realize that it takes negative emotions from almost all corners of the world to summon the great darkness into the realm of light.”

“So how do I play into all of this?”

“Lord Mortem plans to rule on high with the members of his High Council, and he opened the floor recently to suggestions for the final member of his Council to wield the power Ozpin possesses. I nominated you since you are the strongest Strohl for eight generations after you die. Lord Mortem is indeed wise, but is also somebody who desires power absolute.”

“So what, you kill my friends offer me ultimate power and expect me to fight for a man I don’t even know or knew existed until today?”

“No, I want you to be the instrument of his downfall.”

“What?”

“You are the strongest of the Strohls. Imagine what that power could mean if you were granted the strength of an immortal. You will take a seat at Lord Mortem’s Council, you will accept the power he offers, and when the time is right, you will take what is rightfully ours.”

“That’s your big plan? Use me as a weapon to get you more power?”

“No. Weapons cannot think. They cannot act. You are my apprentice. One who will one day be stronger than I am, and bring glory to the name Strohl. I have good standing here in the Order, and with you rising up to near the top, it would be that much easier to take the throne and have ultimate power.”

“You’ve been raving like a madman for the past ten minutes. I’ll never join you.”

“Fool. You’ve felt it yourself, haven’t you? Ever since you defeated the Nikos child, you’ve grown even stronger than you ever thought possible. You’ve attained heights that nobody else could reach. I’m offering you a chance to go as high as the world, maybe even the entire universe. Embrace your destiny my son.” Dr. Strohl then undid the straps on Jacob’s wrists, and held out his hand. “We would be honored, if you would join us.” Jacob sat there for a minute, got up and shook his hand.

“Who do I talk to about getting signed up?”

“I’ll take you through the proper channels. But first, you need some rest. Tomorrow, you will be facing the man who would wish to take the power that rightfully belongs to you.”

“I’ve got to fight somebody to move up in the ranks?”

“Nothing is ever easy child. You’ve known this all your life.”

“Yes sir.”  
  
  
  
  
As she slowly opened the door, she saw only one guard sitting there on duty, seemingly asleep. Not taking any chances, she hit him on the head with the hilt of her axe, and started pushing different buttons and dials on the console as per the instructions on a piece of paper she held in her hand. Finally, the light went green and she put on a headset.

“You’ve reached my private line. This had better be good Vergil.”

“Unfortunately, he’s been captured. I have been asked to pass this message along in his stead.”

“Very well then. This is General Ironwood of Atlas. State your name and purpose for the record.”

“This is Christy Curtiss of Team JCTB, and I am trying to save the lives of my teammates, my supervisor, and the Winter Maiden.”


	27. Episode 2: Chapter 11: Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 11 of Episode 2 of Order of Seasons

As Brooklyn sat in her cell, she kept looking at the necklace she had found down in the gorge. The main locket in the center was sealed shut, so she couldn’t open it. She started looking around the cell for anything she could use as a lock pick, but couldn’t as the cell was very well kept. She then walked over to the cell door and looked at one of the guards.

“Hey, you guys got anything that could help me open this?” she asked holding up the necklace.

“Does it look like we were born yesterday?” One of the guards said pointing his spear at her through the door. “The instant we give you something to pick the locks with, you’ll use it on the door to try and get out.”

“Look, I really don’t care about getting out of here when I clearly have a huge army in my way of escaping. Just do me this solid please?”

“There is no way that we are just going to…” all of a sudden, there was a sound at the end of the hallway as the elevator doors opened. Brooklyn couldn’t see who it was, but whoever it was caused the guards to quake in their boots.

“What…what does she want?”

“I think she wants us to leave.”

“Is that a good idea? I mean, we were given specific orders not to leave them unguarded.”

“The last time somebody didn’t do as she commanded immediately, if I remember right, she just killed them on the spot without second thought.” The two guards stood there in silence for a moment.

“Hey, isn’t that fight about to start right now?” one of the guards said nervously.

“Yeah! Let’s go watch that!” The other guard said while immediately running towards the other elevator. As they both left, Brooklyn realized that the person who was walking towards them was the assassin wearing the mask. As she got closer to Brooklyn, she started taking her mask off, revealing long black hair with a darker skin tone; similar to the way she looked as Brooklyn noticed.

“Who are you?” Brooklyn asked, but got no answer. “Guess I should have expected as much. I don’t suppose you could tell me who left this necklace sitting at the bottom of the gorge?” As she held it up, the assassin grabbed it from Brooklyn and walked over to the wall. “Hey, what’s the big idea?!” Brooklyn yelled. Then, the assassin turned back around and handed her the necklace, now opened up.

“You really don’t remember, do you?” The assassin asked. Brooklyn was caught a bit off guard that she actually spoke.

“What, are you assuming I forgot something?” The assassin sighed, and put her mask back on. “How did you get this?” Brooklyn asked. “This was something that belonged to my mother. It’s a family heirloom.”

“You’re smart, figure it out.”

“What do you mean figure it out? My mother has been gone for years, I have no other family other than my sister Jade, and my father raised me to destroy people and monsters like you. And when I get out of here, you can bet that’s exactly what I’ll do!” Brooklyn yelled as she slammed her fist against the cell door. The assassin lowered her head and turned to leave.

“His work is efficient, I’ll give him that.”

“Who are you talking about? What work?”

“My name is Angela. That’s all you need to know, since you don’t remember anything else.” As Angela started heading for the elevator, Brooklyn looked down at the now open necklace, and realized that encased inside was a picture of her as a young girl sitting in the lap of Angela. Brooklyn got even more steamed and slammed her fist on the cell door again.

“Who are you?” she yelled down the hall. “Why can’t you just give me a straight answer like a normal person?!”  
  
  
  
  
As Angela got off the elevator, she noticed Lord Memoriare was standing right by the elevator like he was waiting for her.

“What did you do Angela?”

“All I did was show her the picture in the necklace Vinculum. You don’t have to worry your pretty head about anything.”

“That’s not my biggest concern. First and foremost, how did they find us when not even Ironwood knows where we are? Second, by showing your daughter that picture, it has made my task of keeping her memories sealed much more difficult. The memory has recognized that she has seen something she doesn’t remember, and desires to reunite with her. Unless I remove that memory from her soon, the memory I’m keeping within my being will soon escape and reunite with her, and she will learn everything you wanted to keep secret from her.”

“I’m prepared for any consequences I may face Lord Memoriare. Leave me be. Don’t you have a match to determine your next council member to attend to?”

“Honestly, I am extremely concerned if Lord Mortem is willing to take power over loyalty. This child of Dr. Strohl only joined us yesterday, and I still question his motivations. Also, while still holding some resentment towards the humans of this organization, Leo Odi is still loyal to this cause. He is somebody who is willing to fight. I fear that Lord Mortem is placing power over loyalty, which is exactly against what the High Council prides itself on.”

“I am willing to be surprised. I think that Jacob is loyal to his father, and in time that will turn into loyalty to Lord Mortem.”

“I do not share your optimism. I should be going. Care to join me?”

“Nothing else to do.”  
  
  
  
  
As Jacob got ready for the match, he looked closer at his sword. It was something that was given to him by his father, having been passed down from generation to generation. Now he almost felt ashamed to wield it.

“You know you don’t have to go through with this right?” Jacob looked up to see that the new voice belonged to his mother. He turned his head away from her and didn’t say anything. “Look, I’m sorry about your friends. If I had been in charge of bringing you here….”

“Don’t try and make this a what if situation. Just let me get this over and done with.”

“But why are you doing this? You just changed sides at the drop of a hat. Why?” Jacob fell silent for almost a full minute.

“I didn’t listen to him for almost a whole year, and as a result, my teammates got killed. Imagine what would happen to the rest of my friends if I continued to ignore him.”

“You think you’re protecting your friends? You’re going to be going to war with them in three years!”

“Maybe I can warn them ahead of time and let them survive the carnage. I don’t know. I just need to make sure nobody else dies.”

“People die all the time Jacob. It doesn’t mean you have to listen to your father when the actions of another harm others.”

“Listening to him has kept us both alive so far, hasn’t it?” Aurora fell silent at Jacob’s remark, and didn’t say a word as he left for the arena.  
  
  
  
Christy finally managed to sneak into the upper decks away from where most everybody was. As she looked down at the makeshift arena, she noticed that Jacob was already standing there in attack position, ready to battle what looked like Leo Odi. She sat down and took her mask off as the two of them rushed towards each other. Jacob began with a horizontal slash, which Leo had to block with both his knives. Knocking Jacob back with a good push, the two of them started sparring and trading blows a bit more evenly. But Christy noticed something. Jacob’s attacks were much more violent and rushed than usual. He wasn’t thinking like he normally did. He was just sort of fighting similarly to the way Ty would, without looking back with any regrets. It caused his defenses to be filled with holes that Leo exploited immediately. When Jacob lunged forward with his weapon, he simply sidestepped and landed a huge blow on his back, causing Jacob to fall down onto one knee in pain. Not stopping even for a second, Leo started launching several aura blade strikes at Jacob, knocking him back further and further until he was pinned up against a wall. Jacob struggled to get up, but right before Leo managed to land what would surely have been the final blow, he activated his time dilation ability and managed to get out of the way and started going crazy. There wasn’t any flow or coordination to his strikes, just pure absolute rage. There wasn’t any defense nor any aura reserves to save him. Leo was just simply overpowered to the point of defeat. As he lay there in a heap, Jacob walked over to him and raised his sword to his neck and looked up at Lord Mortem. Mortem laughed, and jumped down to the arena next to the two of them.

“Well done young one. It would seem your father’s boasts were not vain grasps at power after all. Now then, I give you these two choices. Either kill him and let him die as the failure he is, or let him live as a sign of your weakness.” Jacob looked at Lord Mortem, then down to Leo Odi. He then raised his sword, and then struck it into the ground, glancing Leo’s shoulder. Lord Mortem frowned at this action.

“Why show mercy when you now have position of choosing life or death?”

“Dead, he is no longer of any service to you. But alive, and filled with fear, he will never stray from your path. An obedient slave.” Jacob then simply walked off the stage and into the dark hallways. Lord Mortem smiled and then walked over to the shriveled body of Leo.

“You should be grateful young Master Odi. He is the first member of my High Council to show such compassion. But understand if such weakness is displayed before me again, nobody can spare your life.”

“I understand my lord.”  
  
  
  
  
Jacob walked back to his chambers and immediately slammed the door shut and locked it. He didn’t know what to feel or how to act. He was fighting for an all-powerful being who wanted to destroy the world, and he was also fighting for his father who wanted to overthrow said powerful being. And all because he failed to save his friends. And now he was going to be even further from them than he was before, and would be leading armies on their homes in a few short years. He collapsed on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, not sure what to think. He thought about his friends, and all the good times they used to have. He remembered every time he would get annoyed when Evan came over to be with Christy be it for studying or being lovey dovey. He remembered all the fights he had with Brooklyn, all the times he and Ty talked about battle tactics and strategies. He even remembered the little knock they had made for themselves. He remembered it so well he almost thought he heard it in real life. And then again. And then a third time. By the fourth time he was running towards the door, trying to figure out what was going on. When the knock came through a fifth time, he opened the door, grabbed the person responsible, and dragged them inside. Knocking the person into the wall, he grabbed his sword and put it at the stranger’s neck.

“Talk while you still have a throat. How do you know that knock?”

“Because you taught it to us dummy!” Jacob took a few steps back as he recognized the voice.

“No…. they told me you were dead…”

“Well to keep my cover I did have to pretend to be dead, but that was all part of Vergil’s plan.” Christy said taking her mask off. “By having him, Brooklyn and Ty being the decoys, I could slip in without the enemy knowing and take all the necessary steps in order to….” Before Christy could finish, Jacob had already run over and was hugging her like she was going to disappear again and he didn’t want to let go as tears streamed down his face. Christy wasn’t sure how to respond at first, but after a few seconds, she returned his hug.  
  
  
  
“So everybody survived the attack?”

“Yeah. And then we found this secret base thanks to some coordinates left back in the gorge.”

“Left by who?”

“We aren’t sure yet. But it meant we had a plan. When those three barged in, they screamed that I was dead, which meant they wouldn’t be looking for me if I was sneaking around their base. So not only have I secured the keys to getting everybody out of here, but I have also gotten in contact with the Atlas military. They’re going to be rolling in here sometime tonight to shut this whole thing down.”

“All right then. I’m glad to see everything is going according to plan.”

“Not quite. I still haven’t found the Winder Maiden. Plus, there’s one other thing. You see, one of my other tasks was to disable the weapons that would more than likely destroy whatever fleet Atlas sends here. The guard I decided to impersonate doesn’t have high enough security clearance to do that. But I guess with the fact that for the time being, you are pretty much one of the highest ranking members of this organization you could get it done.”

“I don’t think I’m in the system yet. And my father or that Mortem guy might get a bit suspicious if their newest untested warrior is suddenly taking up interest in the weaponry of this base.”

“Well then, any other ideas?”

“I suggest a diversion.”

“What kind of diversion?”

“You said that Atlas will be arriving here tonight, correct?” 

“That’s what General Ironwood told me.”

“I think I have a way to divert their attention away from the outside world for maybe a few hours.”


	28. Episode 2: Chapter 12: Rush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 12 of Episode 2 of Order of Seasons

Jacob knocked on the door to his father’s chambers, and he answered a few seconds later letting him in.

“Something wrong Jacob?”

“No, nothing is wrong father. I was just wondering, is there anybody else who is apart of the plan you spoke to me of yesterday?” Jacob’s father fell silent, walked over to the door and locked it, quickly changing the password. He walked over to him and sat down on a nearby chair.

“There are a good number of people who rank lower than I do in the Order who wish to overthrow Mortem. I would daresay on this base alone, we have about two thousand members of our revolution. And that doesn’t even include some of our many other operations around the world.”

“So compared to the size of the Order who is loyal to Mortem, what would you say the number difference is between us and them?”

“I would say for every soldier loyal to the revolution, there are another twenty soldiers loyal to Mortem.”

“I’m not a big fan of those odds to be perfectly honest.”

“That’s why you are such an important piece. As a member of Mortem’s high council, you are now the highest-ranking member of the revolution. And when you receive the power that Mortem has promised you, we can rally behind you as our strongest member, and take the world as our own.”

“I see. I would like to meet some of these members. Today if possible.”

“I don’t see why not. You did just become a lord, and you should know who you should save and who you should let die in a battle situation. I’ll start spreading the word around. We shall meet in the western wing in about three hours.”

“That works perfectly for me. See you in a few hours then?”

“Of course. Aurora! Start sending out messages! There are a few members I need to tell personally.” As he said this, Jacob’s father left the room leaving Jacob and his mother there all alone.

“Tell me mother, are you loyal to him, to Mortem, or to another?” Aurora looked up at Jacob slightly confused.

“Where is this coming from?”

“Just answer the question.”

“Well, I’m loyal to both Mortem and your father, but honestly I would like to be free from both of them.”

“That’s all I needed to hear.” Jacob said as he handed her a piece of paper. “Hangar bay, three hours and thirty minutes from now. Be there or we leave without you.” With that said, Jacob left the room leaving Aurora confused. Looking down at the paper, she saw that Jacob had written, “We leave tonight during the chaos. Either choose father’s revolution, Mortem’s Order, of freedom.” Aurora looked over to her desk, and then pulled out a small picture of them all as a family together from a long time ago. She smiled, put it away and grabbed two shields from her closet and started preparing them for battle.  
  
  
  
Miles was a bit slow to get up since he was awake until late last night playing video games with Blake. As he rolled out of bed, he saw that Natalie was already awake and playing a few games on her Scroll.

“Morning fearless leader.” Miles said as he threw on an old t-shirt.

“He lives! It’s a miracle!” Natalie yelled as she paused her game and got up.

“Where’s everybody else at?”

“They all went to grab a late lunch.”

“Lunch? Was I out for that long?”

“Yep. The final between you and Yang is going to be in about four hours from now. Everybody else is just trying to relax in the cafeteria before everything goes completely haywire.”

“And you didn’t join them?”

“I decided to be the person to be around when you woke up. That way when you did wake up, you wouldn’t think we all abandoned you and you would go eat on your own again like last month.”

“Hey, like I said back then, I was going to miss all the good stuff in the cafeteria so I took it into my own hands. But also, why you? Why not your brother or Blake for that matter?”

“Well for starters, my brother is busy giving Yang one of I’m sure many pep talks before her fight with you tonight, and secondly, Blake decided that it would be best to not be here to avoid another “sleeping incident” like the one that happened last night.” Miles pinched his forehead at that remark, remembering how his friends walked in on Blake and him both asleep having played video games late into the night, and Blake had fallen asleep on Miles’ knee with him having his hand on her head smiling.

“Yeah, we aren’t living that one down anytime soon.”

“You’ll live it down sooner than you two totally admit you’re dating.”

“You know what Natls…” Miles said with an annoyed smirk. Natalie simply laughed and headed towards the cafeteria, with Miles following close behind.  
  
  
  
  
  
As Lord Mortem went over some of the files on his computer, there was a knock at his door.

“Who is it computer?”

“JACOB STROHL LORD MORTEM”

“Hide all project windows until I give the password. Understand?”

“YES LORD MORTEM.” With that said, all the files that Lord Mortem was looking at vanished into his desk and faded from existence.

“Enter.” As he said this, the door opened and Jacob walked in, bending one knee to Lord Mortem. “Rise child.” Lord Mortem said offering Jacob a hand up.

“What is it you wish to speak to me about?”

“I have some information that may be interesting for you to hear my lord.”

“What kind of information could you possibly possess having hardly been a part of my Order for a day?”

“Information regarding some traitors my lord.”

“Traitors? Of whom do you speak?”

“In about three hours my lord, you shall know all those who stand against you on this base alone.”

“Why tell me this? And who told you about these traitors?”

“To answer both your questions my lord, I hold no love for my father. He has always manipulated me to do his bidding. And without any form of power to back up what he plans to do. But with you, I can sense not just great ambition, but also great power. I choose to stand at your side and be your loyal servant. Not a slave to my father.” Lord Mortem pondered this for a few minutes.

“Very interesting. I will see that your choice was not in vain Lord Strohl.”  
  
  
  
  
As Miles sat down in the locker rooms, he looked up to see Sun and Pyrrha greeting the crowd for the third place match. He decided it wasn’t really worth watching since the outcome was most likely obvious. He got out one of his coats and put it on while making sure that his swords were placed properly in their sheaths. As he sat back down, he noticed Blake once again standing by the door.

“So is this the only way we’ll ever get privacy around these chuckleheads?” Miles said with a laugh.

“I guess so. And after falling asleep last night, I don’t think they trust me to be anywhere near you.”

“In a good way or bad way?”

“In the sense that Nathan and Yang will never let us hear the end of it if they find something crazy.”

“Well, they aren’t here now, are they?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Want to just chill until I have to leave?”

“That’s why I’m here.” They both smiled, and gave each other a hug, then ended up kissing each other. As they were in the middle of doing so, one of the trash cans fell over, causing them both to jump. Then, out of thin air right by the trashcan appeared Natalie, having recorded their entire conversation on her Scroll.

“Give me the Scroll Natls.” Miles said with clear anger in his voice.

“Are you kidding me? And pass up on the opportunity to get my brother and Yang in my debt? Not a chance!”

“At least delete the video. That much I can live with.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then you don’t leave this room alive.” Miles said drawing both his swords.

“Super-best friend to the rescue!” Everybody looked on in surprise as Ruby rushed in, grabbing Natalie and disappearing down the corridor back towards the seats.

“Get back here you crazy kids!” Miles yelled as he tried to chase after them, but was stopped by Blake.

“It was going to get out eventually. Better we get all the teasing out of the way now rather than later and just having it last longer. Besides, you’ve got a fight to win. You don’t have time for dumb romance related stuff.”

“Yeah, I guess not.”  
  
  
  
  
As Dr. Strohl made his way down the corridor, he saw one of his associates enter the room for the meeting just ahead of him. As he entered the room, he noticed that a large number of those apart of the revolution were already there. As he sat himself down, he looked around the room, trying to find Jacob.

“Has anybody seen my son?” Nobody responded to the question, as everybody looked around confused, not sure where he was. “Well, it doesn’t matter for right now. Let’s get roll call in and then once he shows up, we can begin.” With that said, everybody placed their Scroll on the desk, letting it register their presence and log everybody in.

“I guess that’s everybody. Once my son arrives we can get down to beginning to finalize the steps to our revolution. After many long years, things have finally begun to bloom into fruition.”

“Such false hope will soon lead to your extinction.” Everybody turned and were suddenly knocked back as the entire wall exploded, revealing Lord Mortem, his entire High Council, and several soldiers right behind him. Walking through the rubble, Lord Mortem found the shaken body of Dr. Strohl, and hoisted him up into the air. “Foolish doctor. You underestimated the cunning of your son. You held the leash too tightly as he grew up, giving him the desire to escape. Through that desire, he has recognized his new master. And now, you will die.” As he said this, he began draining Dr. Strohl’s aura, which prompted one of the members of the revolution to fire a few rounds at Lord Mortem, causing him to drop Dr. Strohl. Collecting himself, Lord Mortem laughed, and took a few steps outside the room.

“Kill them all.” He said without giving a second thought, leading everybody to rush towards each other and clash, creating huge shockwaves throughout the entire building.  
  
  
  
  
Christy was busy punching in the final few codes into the weapons system as she felt the first few shockwaves roll through the base. She waited a few more seconds, another shockwave passed through the base, then the alarms started to go off, which meant she was clear to smash the console to pieces to make sure the weapons would remain offline. She quickly left the room, headed down towards the stairs and met up with Jacob.

“Weapons are down. You got the keys Jacob?”

“Yep. I grabbed a universal key, so just in case the airships don’t work out, we at least can get a car or something that can get us out of harms way. You got the cell door keys?”

“Haven’t left my person since I got my hands on them. Let’s get downstairs.” With that said, they ran down to the prison level, and were instantly greeted by guards.

“Lord Strohl, we heard you were helping lead the attack on the revolution. What are you doing here?” Jacob quickly punched one of them while Christy slashed another one down to the ground.

“Starting a revolution of my own.” Jacob said as he ran over to knock out the guard he punched. Christy then ran to each of the cell doors keeping her friends locked up and let them out, also getting Vergil’s cuffs removed.

“Any luck with finding our weapons?” Vergil asked.

“Armory. We pass it on our way to the hangar bay.”

“All right then, let’s get moving!” Suddenly a shot rang out, and they all turned to see the other guard having revived and trying to reach for his radio to call for help. But before anything else happened, a white blur appeared out of nowhere and completely removed the head of the guard. Standing up and dropping all their weapons on the ground was Angela, not wearing her mask. Jacob and Christy took up attack positions but Angela made no motion towards them.

“This is the second time that I have helped you survive Brooklyn.” Angela said. “Lord Mortem won’t tolerate a third.”

“Seriously, what is your fascination with me? It’s kind of creeping me out.”

“Just know this. The next time we meet, one of us will die.”

“What’s stopping me from killing you right now?”

“The fact that Dr. Strohl’s revolution isn’t as powerful as he had hoped. You are running out of time. Get going.” Everybody stood around for a second, not sure what to do, but then Vergil took the initiative, grabbed his sword, and headed for the stairs. Everybody followed in suit, even Brooklyn who didn’t even look back once. Angela lowered her head, and shed a single tear.

“One of us has to die. I pray to the sky that it is me.”  
  
  
  
  
As they made their way to the hangar, Jacob saw his mother standing by one of the few remaining airships. Apparently, Lord Mortem wanted a huge overhaul of supplies off base so that the revolution wouldn’t have any tricks up their sleeves.

“Glad you decided to join us mother.”

“Well, I had to start standing up for myself sometime.” They gave each other a hug, and stared making their way towards the airship. Suddenly, a throwing knife hit the airship directly in the fuel tank, and then a Dust spark caused the entire thing to explode, knocking everybody off their feet. As the smoke started to clear out, Jacob recognized his father standing over all of them, missing his right eye and clasping his chest in pain.

“You….ungrateful little….brat…” As he said this, he raised his katanna up to stab Jacob through the head. But before he could do so, Vergil blocked the strike and pinned Dr. Strohl’s sword into the ground.

“Get everybody else out of here!” Vergil yelled to Jacob. “I’ll hold this guy off!”

“Dad! Don’t be crazy!” Ty yelled. “If that guy is here, then there’s probably an army not too far behind!”

“It’s more important that you all get out of here than me! Now shut up and find a car or something!” With that said, Vergil started fighting off Dr. Strohl, forcing him away from the others. As they all helped each other up, they started making their way towards a nearby service slide to what was labeled as an “emergency getaway car”. Brooklyn, Christy, and Ty all jumped down the slide. Jacob was about to follow in suit, but then stopped when he realized that his mother had stopped and was starting to head right to where Dr. Strohl and Vergil were fighting.

“Mom! What are you doing?!”

“Something I should have done a long time ago.” With that said, Aurora pulled out her twin shields and rushed towards her husband, knocking him back and causing him to bleed out even more. Jacob was about to chase after her, but she looked back, threw one of her shields at him, and knocked him down the slide, and then with the other shield, destroyed the emergency sealing hatch switch to make sure he wouldn’t climb back out nor would anybody follow him. As she got her weapons back, she looked up now to see almost all the remaining members of the Order that was pursing Dr. Strohl standing before them.

“Well, this might actually be a fun challenge for me for a change.” Vergil said as he got into a more professional battle stance.

“Most that I’ll have ever done with my life.” Aurora said, as she also got ready for what was about to happen. They both then rushed forward, weapons at the ready as Vergil swung down for the first strike.  


 

“We have to go back!” Jacob yelled as the car started pulling out of the base and into the forest.

“We don’t have a choice Jacob!” Ty yelled as he manned the controls. “If we go back now, we’re dead for sure!”

“But we can take them! The Atlas military is almost here anyways! I’m not going to let anybody die on my watch!”

“Jacob, if we stayed there, it doesn’t matter when Atlas shows up, we would have been dead before the first shots were fired.”

“My mother is back there! She’s finally standing up for herself! I’m not going to let her die because I didn’t act quickly enough!”

“My dad’s back there also Jacob. How do you think this makes me feel?” The entire car fell silent for a moment as Ty stopped the car.

“I’m sorry Ty. I didn’t think about that.”

“My father always told me to live each and every day like it was your last. He said it was essential in this line of work since you didn’t know if the next battle would be the one that did you in. The problem is, I don’t want him to leave just yet. But he had it hardwired into my brain since I was a kid: if I ever have to lay my life down for you, don’t look back.” Christy walked over to him and gave him a hug; a few tears were running down her face.

“Maybe it isn’t too late.” Brooklyn said. “Maybe Atlas will get there in time to help get them out of there.”

“I hope you’re right.” Jacob said as he got out of the car. “I don’t want anybody else to die.”  
  
  
  
  
Lord Mortem walked into the hangar and saw that his soldiers had completely subdued Dr. Strohl, his wife, and Vergil. He walked over to them, and punched Dr. Strohl in the mouth.

“Traitorous trash.”

“The Strohl’s…were destined to…rule this world….”

“The belief in anything other than the power I possess is exactly what lead Cinder Fall to her demise. You would have done well to remember that.”

“It was never my destiny to kill you anyways.” Dr. Strohl said with a laugh. “My son will destroy you.” Lord Mortem looked at Dr. Strohl, and then walked over to his wife. “Leave her out of this Mortem. She was never loyal to me. If you want to kill me, then do it.” Lord Mortem looked back at Dr. Strohl, then down at Aurora again.

“She will never be loyal to me now that your son is in play. And you are a traitor who needs to learn his place.” As he said this, he walked back over to Dr. Strohl, drew his buster sword, and grabbed him by the throat. “Tell me, do you love her?”

“Yes….”

“Would you give everything up for her, even your own life?”

“If…there is one thing I am loyal to other than my family name…. it is her…” Lord Mortem smiled at this, and dropped Dr. Strohl to the ground.

“Then you will remember this moment every time you think of betraying me again.” As soon as he said this, he raised his sword up and sent it clean through the body of Aurora. Dr. Strohl wanted to scream, but before he could, Lord Mortem punched him in the gut, knocking all the potential wind out of him.

“You……monster…..I’m the one…..wanted……”

“Your son taught me a very important lesson. That dead, you would be of no further use to me. But with you alive, and filled with fear and hatred, you shall be a weapon fit for my arsenal. I hereby strip you of your title of Doctor. Peter Strohl, soldier of the Order of the Four Seasons, rise.” For a split second, he didn’t get up, but then he finally did so. “Very good. Gentlemen, take him to the dungeons. That shall forever be his home until I have use for him. Now then, on to the final loose end in the immediate vicinity.” Lord Mortem started walking towards Vergil, but then a large explosion shook the entire complex and blew a hole in the roof of the hangar. Lord Mortem gathered himself and looked out the now gaping hole to see two Atlas airships beginning an attack on the compound.

“We’re under attack!” Lord Hibernis yelled. He rushed forward to the rubble with his whip, and started using it to try and knock out the airships.

“Don’t waste your time Lord Hibernis.” Lord Mortem said placing a hand on his shoulder. “I will deal with this. But first, some final preperations. Master Allen! Master Odi!” As soon as he yelled this, Leo and another White Fang member fell to one knee right behind him. “Master Allen, it is clear that no longer can the Order hide in the shadows. You are to go to the executive computer room and launch Alpha Theta protocol.”

“My lord, are you certain?”

“If Atlas knows about this location, then if this fleet falls, it will be their grand army we see next on our doorstep. Also, the child of Peter Strohl knows too much. And he is more than likely too far away to try and kill him to keep him from talking. Too much has gone wrong. We must act now. Send word out to all the other stations and get communications to begin jamming frequencies on the CCTS. Nobody can know we are coming.”

“At once my lord.” As he ran off, Lord Mortem handed his buster sword to Leo.

“What is the meaning of this my lord?”

“Master Odi, I do not need this weapon at this time in order to deal with these Atlas fools. But prove yourself loyal to me and bring me the head of Demon Slayer Vergil, LORD Odi.” As he said this, he walked outside, leaving Leo to hold the great sword within his hands, walk over to Vergil, and without hesitation, bring the weapon down on his head.  
  
  
  
  
As they all looked on from where they were parked, it looked like the Atlas military had everything completely under control.

“Maybe they can do this.” Jacob said as he clutched the hilt of his sword. “Maybe they can save them.” All of a sudden, as if out of nowhere, down in the compound, four gigantic Nevermores flew up into the sky and started attacking the airships. At first, it looked like the guns on the airships were enough to handle the creatures, but then, several explosions went off inside the airships, causing both of them to crash into the ground. For several minutes, not a single word was uttered. Not even a cry was let out. And before any other reactions could be made, the ground started to shake, and a fleet of giant airships rose out of the ground. And these weren’t dinky little airships stolen from other nations; these were state of the art military grade airships. Everybody’s collective jaws hit the ground as soon as they saw them take off into the air.

“What do we do now?” Brooklyn asked.

“We need to get out of here.” Jacob said getting back in the car. “If they find us, then the world loses valuable information about these guys.”

“So where do you suggest we go?” Christy asked.

“I suggest Patch.” Ty said as he started up the car. “It’s close enough to Vale, but far enough away to not draw attention. If we want to help our friends, I’m afraid it’s going to have to be after whatever the Order has planned at first is finished.”

“He’s right.” Jacob said. “Let’s get moving.” As soon as everybody was in the car, they drove off into the night as the giant airships flew right overhead.  
  
  
  
  
Yang had to use both her gauntlets in order to block an attack from Miles. Realizing he now had an opening, he swung his other sword around and knocked her back a few feet towards the edge. Regaining her balance, Yang launched herself towards Miles, who tried to dodge, but got clipped in the shoulder anyway by her punch. He went flying across the stage, and ended up right back in the middle of the ring. As he got up, he realized that Yang was laughing at him.

“Yeesh, are you so distracted by wanting to kiss Blake that you can’t even fight right?” Miles winced at her comment, and got back up, closing his eyes and getting on one knee.

“Let go your earthly tether. Enter the void. Empty, and become wind.” As he finished saying this, he reopened his eyes, and leapt straight towards Yang.

“Did you just quote Legend of Kor-ah!” Yang had to move out of the way and quickly bring her guard up, as Miles was suddenly moving a lot faster, landing weaker strikes compared to what he normally was capable of, but landing a larger number of them. Trying to slow him down, Yang grabbed his right arm, and punched him right in the gut, sending his aura levels down to about 24%. As she pulled back for what was sure to be the finishing blow, Miles blocked the punch with his free sword, and head-butted Yang. The crowd was shocked by this, and wasn’t sure how to react. Yang was clearly caught off guard by this and had almost completely lost her balance. Realizing this chance, Miles unleashed a flurry of strikes to completely deplete Yang’s aura. The buzzer sounded signifying the match was over.

“Miles Watson of Beacon wins the match!” Professor Ozpin exclaimed excitedly. “And with that victory, he is also the champion of the Restoration Tournament!” The crowd roared, and Miles pumped his fist in the air in victory. He then walked over and offered a hand up for Yang, which she reluctantly accepted.

“Lucky shot.” She said as she got back up.

“I probably would have said the same thing to be fair.”

“Yeah, well, congrats on the win man.”

“Hey, at least nothing went wrong.”

“Come on, I think they’re bringing up the podium for the awards ceremony.”  
  
  
  
  
“Congratulations to Team RIFL for fan favorite team in the tournament.” Everybody applauded as Professor Ozpin handed the award to the team, which they gladly accepted. “And now on to the presentation of awards to those who stand head and shoulders among the rest, as champions.” The crowd cheered as they brought up the trophies for first through third place. The respective fighters took their place on the podium as Ozpin said a few words.

“This may not be a Vytal festival, nor a tournament that will ever occur again, but this was important. The world came under attack from a villain who wanted control, and the world stood up to that villain and said no. We will remain diverse, and we will remain unique. This tournament was a celebration of those who put everything on the line for the sake of the world. And we can’t thank them enough for that.” The audience applauded and gave a standing ovation as a slideshow of all the fighters who fought played on the monitors.

“Such a beautiful sentiment.” A loud voice boomed through the speakers. Everybody started looking around confused. Professor Ozpin tried to speak into the microphone once again, but couldn’t get any sound through. Suddenly, the video monitors switched to a man with silver hair, much different from Ozpin’s.

“I am sure you are all aware of the terrors that Cinder Fall exacted on Vale one year ago today. Well let me tell you, she was a fool. She only attempted to take down one kingdom and one academy. She also did so against my wishes. I was her master and she my pupil. Betrayed, because she believed in the idea of destiny. Well then, now I stand before you with a society that has laid dormant for years, and is now finally ready to take what is rightfully ours. My name is Lord Zenoma Mortem. Master of the Order of the Four Seasons. And now, the master of all of the kingdoms of Remnant. And to show that I am not bluffing, you shall all be destroyed as an example of the power I possess.” As he finished saying his piece, he snapped his fingers and all of a sudden, explosions went off across the entire stadium. Everybody began to panic and run for the exits. For a split second, it seemed like nothing was happening. But then, all of a sudden, the entire stadium began falling to the ground. As it began to fall faster and faster, the screams of terror grew louder and louder until the stadium seemed to stop in midair. Yang and Pyrrha collected themselves and looked around for an answer, and realized that Miles was keeping the stadium floating, but it was clearly straining his body.

“Get everybody out of here!” He yelled.

“I can help Miles!” Pyrrha said trying to get a fix with her polarity.

“There’s no time! This entire stadium isn’t made of metal and I doubt the parts that are metal are big enough for you make a significant enough impact on! Just get everybody out!”

“Can you even take that much pressure?” Yang asked as she noticed that Miles was already starting to get a bit of a nosebleed.

“I’ll be fine! Stop dawdling and get moving!” They finally accepted his demands, and ran out to the airship docks. There they found the rest of their friends getting on board one of the airships.

“Where’s Miles?” Blake asked.

“He’s the reason we haven’t fallen back to earth yet.” Yang said as she jumped on board the airship.

“What? But how is he supposed to get out?”

“I don’t think he thought that far ahead.”

“I’m going back for him.”

“Are you crazy?” Pyrrha yelled. “If you pull him out now, everybody else still stuck up here will die!” Blake didn’t even stop running back into the stadium.

“Somebody has got to stop her before she does something stupid!” Weiss yelled.

“I’ll get them both out of here.” Ruby said as she jumped off the airship.

“Are you crazy?” Natalie said grabbing her arm. “You’ll die in there!”

“Don’t worry." Ruby said breaking away from Natalie's grasp. "I can get them out safely.”

“All right then. Where should we meet up?” Evan asked.

“You all head to the school. Try and fight off anything that might be attacking it. If it looks like this isn’t a battle we can win, find a way to get back to Patch. Miles might need some medical attention, and if Vale falls, that might be the safest place for him.” With that said, Ruby ran off back into the arena and the airship took off and headed for Beacon. Nathan looked outside and saw several airships starting to launch rockets at downtown Vale.

“This isn’t going to be easy.”

“Battles like this never are.” Ren said as he loaded his weapons.  
  
  
  
  
Lord Mortem walked away from the camera and over to the bridge, where his fleet of airships was beginning their attack on downtown Vale.

“My lord,” one of the soldiers spoke up towards the front of the bridge. “Amity coliseum hasn’t fallen yet.”

“What kind of prank is this? I will not be undermined. If it remains flying, then there may not be enough negative emotion generated to summon the dark sister. Speaking of which, prepare the away team for the assault on Beacon.”

“Who do you wish to lead the assault my lord?”

“I will lead it myself. I will be down in the hangar with the strike team. In the meantime, all available airships are to target Amity coliseum and send it to the ground in flames.”

“Yes my lord.”  
  


Miles was starting to feel the full weight of the stadium now as he continued to cough up blood. But still he stood tall, refusing to give an inch.

“Well, at least everybody is safe. I can die an honorable death and the like I guess.”

“Miles!” Blake yelled as she jumped down into the stadium.

“I had to jinx it. Blake! What are you doing here?” As he yelled this, he coughed up a ton more blood.

“I’m not leaving you. Come on, we have to get out of here.”

“Not until everybody is safe.”

“But everybody is safe. It’s just you and me left.”

“I consider you a part of everybody.” Blake took another step towards Miles.

“Were you planning on dying here just to get everybody a chance to get out?”

“Well, even if you did pull me out right now, I’m not sure what the internal damage to my body is. I might die of internal bleeding anyways.” Blake started crying a few tears.

“Please. I’ve lost so much. I don’t want to lose you too.”

“I don’t want to lose you either Blake. Or Natalie, or Nathan, or Evan or Ruby, or any of those guys. So please, just get out of here. I might be able to set this thing down softly so it doesn’t create as much of an….” Before he could finish, several explosions hit the side of the stadium, causing it to shake, and sending debris into the middle of the arena. Blake almost got hit by one of the pieces of rubble, but managed to dodge it with an after-image. However, another piece struck Miles right in the head, knocking him out and causing the stadium to begin to plummet to the earth. Blake ran over to the now limp body of Miles and grabbed him, trying to figure out how to get out. But with the stadium falling, nothing seemed to be a good option, as she just looked up into the sky with fear in her eyes.  
  
  


 

 

 

 **Roll Credits**  
  
  


 

 

 

Professor Ozpin rushed into his office and dropped his cane at what he saw. The dark summoning circles. Something that he hoped to never see again in his lifetime. As he looked closer, he realized that it was about three-quarters away from being complete.

“Please Salem. For the greater good, you mustn’t return.”


	29. Episode 3: Chapter 1: Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 1 of Episode 3 of Order of Seasons

“It’s your move Ozpin.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I said it’s your move.”

“Oh. Thanks Salem.” Ozpin picked up his bishop and moved it over to take Salem’s rook.

“Normally, you don’t make such simple mistakes sister. Something is clearly on your mind.” Salem sighed, and moved her knight to begin defending her king.

“I’m concerned about what father did with those four mortal women.” 

“The women he gave the last of his magical powers to? I think it’s a good step. The fact that after so many eons, he has become willing to trust humanity with such a gift truly speaks to his faith in mankind.”

“Honestly, I’m glad that father has become more willing to trust mortals, but they have a tendency to desire more power than they have already been given.”

“Well, immortality is something that appeals to many people. We are the only few that can watch the world grow and change and say we were there every step of the way. Many scholars have told me they are envious of the fact that we will live to see their children’s children create an even better world than the one we have now.”

“But it won’t last Ozpin. Just as mankind can create, it can also destroy. Don’t you remember when father was attacked by villagers from the last age? He gave them everything, and they still turned on him. Their lust for power is something that can’t be tempered.”

“That’s why we are here Salem. To teach them to truly better understand how to build a better world. We have seen them come close before, and with each new era, they get even closer to perfection.”

“I’m not sure Ozpin. I feel like we’re stuck in a perpetual loop that is forever destined to have humans destroyed by those above them.”

“Then what if we break that cycle?”

“What?”

“What if we stayed away from human civilization for a few decades, let them build something on their own, then enter their society and stand among them as their equals.”

“But we aren’t their equals Ozpin. If anything, we’re their creators.”

“Father doesn’t have the magical powers necessary to create life anymore. This most recent batch of humans is going to have to last the rest of eternity.”

“I can’t guarantee that it will remain that way. Humans are fickle creatures, and even if they tried to stand against me, there would be no victory in strength.”

“Salem, if you continue to treat them like less than dirt, then you will never truly make a connection with them.”

“Only because they don’t make a connection with me.”

“And whose fault is that?” They both fell silent for a few minutes before they recognized four figures coming over the hillside outside the house.

“Goodness, is it that time of year already?” Ozpin said as he got up.

“The four are here early this year.” Salem said. “Must have had some easy travels.”

“I’ll let father know and start making dinner for all of us. Salem, why don’t you go and greet our guests?”

“Are you sure brother? I would be more than happy to cook.”

“Trust me on this one. You’ve hardly gotten to know these ladies during the last ten years they’ve come to visit father. Try connecting with them this time.”

“Fine. I’ll do what I despise most and socialize with the mortals.” Salem levitated the chessboard off to the side and walked outside to greet the young ladies.  
  
  


 

 **200 Years Later**  
  
  


 

Ozpin checked for vital signs, but it was clear that she had passed on and the power of Fall had moved on to another. As he got up, Salem didn’t even need to hear him say it to know what had happened. She clenched her fists and dark shadows started to swirl around her.

“Salem! Calm yourself. Violence will only beget more violence.”

“How much longer are you going to play the pacifist Ozpin? This is the third time in the last 75 years. Mankind doesn’t care about the gifts that father’s magic can give them. They are envious of it, and want it for themselves. Who’s to say an army won’t try to take this power for themselves? Or somebody who actually understands the powers we posses?”

“We’ve been making strides Salem. We mustn’t let rage get the better of us. Father believed in mankind so in turn I think we should….”

“Ugh, father this and father that. Did you ever stop and think that you don’t have to follow his path exactly Ozpin? Why can’t you just accept that maybe father was wrong? That maybe we should try to take matters into our own hands?”

“Because it isn’t out place Salem. We promised him we would no longer use our powers to be gods over humans.”

“Well maybe we should! Who’s to say somebody else won’t try to do that before we do?”

“Impossible. Father’s magic is fractured. Divided amongst the world.”

“Yes, but only among six vessels. Four of which change every time the host dies. Who’s to say that somebody won’t try to put the pieces back together and take that power for their very own and judge over mankind in our stead?”

“You’re being paranoid Salem. Just calm down. We’ll find out who did this and they will receive justice.”

“Justice by whose standards?” Ours? Or the corrupt leaders of the humans?”

“Salem, you know as well as I do, that vengeance is the path to darkness. Try to keep a level head.”

“Well maybe it’s time for darkness to rule over this world again! It’s been blinded by the light for too long!”

“Are you threatening the lives of the human race?”

“I’m not threatening. I’m proclaiming the death of everything that lives on this planet.”

“You know I won’t allow that to happen.”

“Then you will die.” Salem then raised her arms into the sky, and summoned giant creatures of pure darkness.

“How far into your mind has the poison of the dark realm run my sister?”

“Enough to grant me the power to destroy you brother.”  
  
  
  
  
As Ozpin stood over the now broken body of his sister, he dropped his cane to the ground and walked over to her.

“What are you waiting for Ozpin? Kill me already!”

“No. If I kill you, then I would be no better than you. And if I let you live, the only way I could keep you here would be in spirit form. I think instead, I’ll banish you to the place you have bathed yourself in.”

“Locking me away in the Dark Realm won’t solve any problems Ozpin. The humans will still strive for more power, and won’t rest until they get it.”

“Then I will find people who are willing to stand and fight for those who cannot. Those who have power and those who don’t will suffice. Guardians of this world to counteract the creatures of darkness you have unleashed upon this world.”

“You can prepare your guardians. You can build your monuments to our father and his ideas of a free world. But take heed, there will be no victory in strength.”

“Or perhaps victory is in the simpler things you have long forgotten. Things that require a smaller, more honest soul.”

“When the day comes when humanity rallies against you to claim the power that once was our father, you will beg for my help. You will beg for the death I will give to them on their last day.”

“No. Never.” With that said, Ozpin started drawing symbols in the dirt, and sending magic through his cane to begin an enchantment. As he progressed, chains rose up from the ground, binding Salem and dragging her through the portal that was now being created.

“So long Ozpin. I can’t wait to watch you burn.” Salem then disappeared, and the summoning circles along with her. Ozpin sighed and fell to his knees.

“I’m so sorry Salem. I failed you. I failed our father. All I can do now is watch over this world and hope for the best.”  
  
  
  
  
As Ozpin looked out the window and saw the city he swore to protect begin crumbling, he grabbed his cane and smashed his desk with one angering blow. Somehow, a random person managed to figure out how to summon one of the most powerful beings in the universe back into the realm of light. And it didn’t help that it was becoming clear what they were after. Looking out the window again, he saw Amity coliseum begin to fall to the ground, crashing into one of the commercial districts in downtown Vale. And then as if on cue, several airships began to descend towards Beacon, with hordes of Grimm not far behind them. Cleaning his hands off from the damage he did to them from smashing his desk, Ozpin sat down in his chair and decided to wait.  
“I hate to admit it my sister, but you were right when you said that there would be humans who wanted the power all for themselves. Their greed has opened the floodgates, and the walls between our realm and yours is now so blurred you’re going to come back no matter how proficient in magic I am. I fully expect you to burst out at any moment and mock me to my face and laugh at how you were right. But I’m not done yet. They may come for the power you and I possess, but I stand with humanity. And they have chosen to fight. And so long as they fight, I shall as well.”  
  
  
  
  
  
“Miles, you can’t fight if you can barely stand up!” Miles coughed up some more blood as he lay on the ground.

“Ruby…. I’m fine. I can….” But before he could finish, he passed out yet again.

“What do we do?” Blake yelled starting to panic. “It’s not like we can just leave him like this. I mean, who knows what kind of injuries he has! First trying to hold up the entire stadium and then you grabbing us and pulling us around with your speed force probably didn’t help much either!”

“Hey, it’s better than being dead! There wasn’t anything else we could do, you know that Blake!”

“I’m sorry. It’s just; why do bad things always happen to people I care about? First my friends in the White Fang, then you guys, and now him. I don’t….”

“Blake. This is the job we all signed up for. Just buckle up and help me get him up.” Blake wiped her face off and helped Ruby get Miles to a more upright position.

“Now what?”

“Now, I’m going to take him back to my home on Patch.”

“How do you plan on getting him there? Do you have a boat?”

“No, but I’m sure somebody at the docks could give us a lift. It is an emergency after all.”

“Okay then. I’ll help you carry him.”

“No. You’re going to go back, find as many friends as you can, and tell them to fall back to my house.”

“But I don’t even know where that is!”

“Yang does. Find her, find our friends, and get out of here. We weren’t ready for this fight today. And this attack is much more coordinated. Not like last year.”

“But Ruby…”

“That’s an order Blake.” Blake took a step back as her leader took a more serious tone, then nodded her head and ran off to find the others. As soon as she was gone, Ruby picked up Miles and started walking towards the docks.  
  
  
  
  
Adam swung his sword down on a nearby civilian that was trying to escape the carnage. As he continued on his way, Lord Hibernis walked up next to him.

“Enjoying yourself Lord Taurus?”

“Honestly, this is a lot more enjoyable than the stunt I helped Cinder pull off last year.”

“She was indeed foolish. Attempting to take down the establishment in the one place where everything that could destroy her had congregated for a brief time. Such a foolish action.” Suddenly, Lord Hibernis’ Scroll went off. “Well, we now control Mistral. Another step towards the overall rule of the Order over Remnant.”

“And at the heart of all of it, precious Vale and its immortal guardian.” Both of them looked up at Beacon tower and watched the command ship land right on the front courtyard.

“It won’t be long now.” Adam said with a laugh.  
  
  
  
  
As the car started to run out of gas, Ty decided to turn it off and get out. As they walked to the edge of the tree line, they noticed all the chaos going on in Vale.

“By the stars….” Brooklyn said taking a step back. Christy just held her hands to her mouth in disbelief, Jacob fell to one knee, and Ty just clenched his fist.

“We need to keep moving.” Ty said as he moved forward.

“Do you even know how we are going to get to Patch without a transport?” Jacob asked.

“You’re the team leader. You tell me how we’re getting to Patch.”

“I have absolutely no idea.” Jacob said, clearly distraught. Ty sighed, and walked over to Jacob.

“Listen, just pull out a knife with ice dust in it, and use it on the water to make a raft. Then we can just paddle over to the other shore.” Jacob nodded his head, walked over to the edge of the water, and created the raft. As they all got on board and pushed off, they noticed several more explosions coming from Vale, and noticing even more airships were coming in.

“What are they so interested in Vale for?” Christy said as she watched on in horror.

“If I remember right, they’re trying to gather some kind of ultimate power, and I think Ozpin has a piece of it.” Jacob said. “Their idea was that each person in Mortem’s high council would be granted ultimate power to help rule over Remnant. Sort of like an all powerful world council.”

“So what’s the point of attacking everybody if they already had the Maidens under their thumb?”

“Mortem told me this during a short period of time after I had “sworn” my loyalty to him. Basically, Ozpin is one of their targets, but there’s also something else. The source of all the Grimm?”

“What?” Ty asked confused. “I thought the Grimm were just pure darkness. I didn’t think they were actually created by somebody.”

“I don’t know the whole story. Mortem only told me a small piece and promised more overtime. Honestly, what he has planned scares me to no end.”

“World domination in and of itself is terrifying.” Brooklyn said trailing her hand in the water. “So many people want control, and nobody is certain if they want control to help the world or help themselves.”

“I think a global attack is a clear warning sign for helping themselves.” Christy said with a sigh.

“There’s not much we can do now.” Jacob said. “We won’t reach Patch anytime soon, and by the time we do, I’m sure Vale will have fallen. Hopefully, we can find allies and begin to plan for a counter attack.”  
  
  
  
  
As Lord Mortem got off the airship, he held his hands up and released a large number of Grimm onto the school grounds, spreading chaos all across the board. Students and Huntsmen were spread thin, and it didn’t help that the soldiers of the Order were also there to try and lower their numbers. Walking forward, Mortem pulled out his buster sword and looked up at Beacon tower.

“What’s your plan of attack my lord?” Lord Aeris asked peeking out from behind him. Mortem simply smiled and walked forward with confidence.

“I’m going to kill the last two living gods in this world.”


	30. Episode 3: Chapter 2: Retreat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 of Episode 3 of Order of Seasons

Blake sliced through a small pack of Ursa’s on her way across one of the few cliffs that connected to Beacon. All the airships were down, and there was no way she was going to find a boat to get close enough to the school. As she got closer, she was able to make out better and better her friends fighting in the courtyard. Yang and Nathan were teaming up to take down a Griffon, while Pyrrha was running a Creep through with her spear. She couldn’t see many of the others yet, but that didn’t stop her from leaping towards the courtyard and slicing an incoming Nevermore in half. As soon as she landed, she saw Weiss rushing towards her with an ice glyph at the ready. Leaping over Blake, she stabbed a King Taijitu right in the head, causing it to dissipate in a split second.

“Are you all right Blake? What happened back there?! How did you get out of the coliseum?”

“Ruby pulled me and Miles out before it collapsed. She’s taking him out of the city now while we try and finish the fight. Where are the others?”

“Ren and Nora are over near the amphitheater fighting off several other hordes of Grimm with Coco and the others. Natalie and Evan ran off with Sun and Neptune to try and secure the dorms and get people out. Yang, Nathan and myself have been busy trying to make sure no more Grimm get further into the school. With all these monsters, the White Fang, and whoever these new idiots are fighting alongside them, we’re vastly outnumbered.”

“That’s never stopped us before.”

“Hopefully it won’t stop us now. You ready to keep going?”

“Honestly, I’m amazed we managed to talk for this long.” They both then rushed towards Nathan and Yang to begin fighting off even more monsters.  
  
  


As Ozpin looked out over the chaos, Goodwitch and Beanie rushed in.

“Professor Ozpin! What should we do?” Beanie yelled.

“Protect the citizens. They are the one that are in harms way right now.”

“But what about you?” Before Ozpin could answer Goodwitch, the other elevator doors exploded open, and in walked Mortem, with his sword at the ready, and dark energy steaming off his hands.

“Imagine; merely a fraction of your sister’s power is enough to get me all the way here Ozpin. I look forward to claiming the rest.”

“Fool. You would risk an apocalypse out of a lust for power? I will never allow it. Not while I live!”

“Frankly Ozpin, you were never going to survive this.” Before Ozpin could react, both Beanie and Goodwitch had rushed forward to begin engaging Mortem. Ozpin raised his hand in warning, but before any words could leave his mouth, Mortem created a giant dark energy shockwave that knocked them on their backs and caused all the windows in the room to shatter. Beanie was the first one to get back up, and he quickly rushed towards Mortem, pulling out some water he was keeping in a bottle in his backpack. Forming it around his arms, he rushed forward and began clashing with his opponent. Mortem simply laughed as he parried the attacks from his opponent.

“I hate it when people who I completely outclass try to fight me. So how about you just leave us be?” With one quick motion, Mortem knocked Beanie back and sent him flying out the window. Goodwitch tried to catch him with her telekinesis, but Mortem forced her to defend herself from a few dark projectiles, leaving Beanie to fall to the ground below.

“You monster!” Goodwitch yelled as she picked up a bunch of debris and threw it at Mortem, which he deflected away with his sword.

“Seriously, all you are doing is helping me get closer to what I want. So I don’t mind this slight distraction.” Ozpin, finally regaining his footing, rushed forward as well and helped Goodwitch try and take down Mortem. Realizing that he was outnumbered, Mortem quickly summoned an Ursa into the room to try and split the attack. Ozpin backed off from fighting Mortem to quickly impale the Ursa right through the chest. But as he turned around to try and fight Mortem again, three more Ursa’s were standing in his way. Meanwhile, Goodwitch was clearly starting to lose her ground against Mortem. She would try throwing several pieces of debris at him, but he just simply sliced through everything she threw at him. Finally, when she tried to throw the remains of Ozpin’s desk at him, he simply grabbed a large chunk of it with one hand, and threw it right back at Goodwitch. Reacting quickly, she stopped the piece of rubble in mid-air, but in that split second, Mortem rushed forward slicing through the debris, and landed a blow that knocked Glynda to her knees. She got right back up, but then was met with Mortem crushing her throat and raising her into the air.

“You fought well Glynda Goodwitch. Unfortunately, I’m starting to run low on time.” As he said this, he started draining her aura. As soon as he finished the deed and dropped her withered body to the floor, Ozpin let loose a scream that caused the roof of the tower to fly off into the night sky, never to come down again. Mortem turned to observe his new foe, and he saw that Ozpin was now covered in a green flame. Not truly an aura burn, as it seemed the flames seemed to be physically empowering him instead of just being an after effect of an aura burn.

“I will kill you for this.”

“A pity that your vengeance will never come to fruition.”  
  
  
  
  
Natalie did a spin attack to take out a horde of Boarbatusk’s that had started to surround her. After she finished that attack, she ran over to Evan, Sun and Neptune who were staring down an incoming wave of Grimm from the horizon.

“So what do you think?” Evan asked.

“Well, it might be a bit problematic if one more shows up.” Sun said flipping his hair back.”

“Well then that’ll be the one I have to take care of.” Neptune said morphing his weapon to blaster form.”

“What? You’re fighting too?” The two of them laughed at Sun’s remark and got ready to advance as soon as Natalie arrived.

“What did I miss?” She asked as she set her weapon down in a sniper position.

“We were just discussing how to take down all these stupid enemies and look cool while we do it!”

“Neptune, I don’t think now is the best time for trying to create the perfect scenario for your next profile picture….”

“But It’s been almost three hours since my last profile picture update! My fans probably think I’m dead unless I let them know otherwise!”

“I think the rest of the world has more to worry about than your profile pic dude.” Sun said. “And so do we unless we actually start moving towards taking these creatures out!” But before they could advance, all of a sudden a bunch of debris and the top of Beacon Tower came crashing down, crushing the horde of Grimm in front of them. Leaping out of the way of the falling debris, they surveyed what had just happened. Then Neptune pulled out his Scroll and took a quick picture.

“Really dude?”

“C’mon Sun. It’s not very often that you’re going to see something like this every day!”

“Enough gawking!” Natalie said turning towards the courtyard. “We still have work to get done!”  
  
  
  
  
Nathan grabbed one of his clubs out of the air after causing a Nevermore to start falling right into the giant ice spike that Weiss had created, forcing it to dissipate as soon as it collided with the ground. Meanwhile, Yang and Blake used the bumblebee technique to knock over a bunch of Beowlves like bowling pins. Suddenly, a giant Beringel leapt from the cliffside and created a shockwave from its landing, knocking everybody back a few paces. The creature beat its chest and let out a giant roar, but then was cut short by Nora bashing it in the head from above and Ren slicing its knees. It wasn’t enough to destroy the monster, but it bought everybody enough time to form up as a group and for Natalie and her group to join them as well.

“They just keep coming!” Nathan said in frustration as his aura burn started glowing a reddish-orange.

“Stay alert. This could get tricky.” Natalie said reloading her weapon.  As they rushed forward to begin fighting the creature again, the ground started to shake. Dark clouds started swirling above Beacon tower, and all the Grimm stopped what they were doing and roared towards the darkness. Not sure how to react, everybody started cutting down the Grimm one by one, but not even that fazed them. They continued to cry out to whatever was going on atop the tower.

“What’s happening?” Nora yelled.

“I don’t know, but I’m not letting this opportunity slip away!” Yang yelled. “We can take down the more powerful Grimm before they stop gawking at whatever’s going on up there!”

“I’m not sure that’s the best course of action right now!” Pyrrha yelled. “Yes, all the Grimm are distracted, but we still have the human soldiers to deal with, and I don’t think that they’re going to run away when some big powerful darkness appears like last time.”

“I’m with Pyrrha.” Weiss said as she sent a fire attack towards a small pack of Grimm. “This is radically different from when Cinder attacked us a year ago. She was very cinematic about her attack and what she was trying to do. While this is more like a declaration of war, and we aren’t ready for what we’re facing now or what we might end up facing if we stick around to see what is causing all the Grimm to ignore their basic instincts.”

“What do the leaders think?” Blake yelled as she sent out an energy blade to knock down an incoming troop of White Fang soldiers. “They’re the ones who should be making the decisions.”

“I agree with Pyrrha.” Jaune said.

“I vote skedaddle.” Sun chimed in.

“As much as I hate to run, we should get out of here.” Natalie said as she fired a few rounds towards some faraway Grimm. “But where to we run to?”

“Ruby said she was taking Miles back to Patch. She told me to let Yang know in case we needed to head that direction.”

“Yeah, I know where we need to go.” Yang said as she started heading towards one of the airship docks. “I can fly one of these things. I’ll get us to Patch no problem.”

“Wait!” Evan yelled. “We should try to get as many allies as we can out of here as we can!”

“He’s right!” Weiss said as she started chasing after Yang. “ If we can get a small band of friends together, we can figure out what is really going on and come back stronger than ever! Besides, with an airship, we could find other fighters in other kingdoms and come back to take down this army!”

“Enough talking! We’re wasting enough time as it is!” Natalie yelled as she launched herself towards the rest of her friends as they began running. All the while, the dark clouds above Beacon tower continued to churn.  
  
  


Mortem stabbed his sword into the ground as he continued to skid towards the edge of the tower. Before he could collect himself, Ozpin was already pressing forward, landing several blows that almost sent Mortem over the edge. However, with a controlled step back, he leapt over Ozpin and landed on the opposite side of the room across from the summoning circles.

“Give up Mortem. I have defeated my sister at full power eons before you even got a taste of the strength your mistress possesses. I don’t know how she managed to create a communication portal between this world and hers, but I will never let her servants bring her back so that she can eradicate the human race!” As soon as Ozpin finished saying this, Mortem broke out laughing.

“Fool. Who said anything about joining her?”

“What?” But before Mortem could respond, a giant pillar of darkness shot up from the center of the room. Lightning shot out high in the sky, and all the Grimm simultaneously roared, and the entire sky turned black. When the pillar faded, in the center of the circle was Salem, kneeling on the floor with the power of darkness practically oozing from her body. As she got up, she waved her hand in the sky, causing energy balls fell from the sky and landed on all the different Grimm down below. Encasing them in darkness, it seemed like they had become more of a liquid, without any physical form whatsoever. Then, with a snap of her fingers, from the pools of darkness rose ten more Grimm in the place of the one that had been enveloped. On top of that, these Grimm clearly were much more powerful than any other recorded Grimm in history. And as soon as they emerged, they immediately began to attack any nearby humans, be they White Fang or otherwise.

“I would suggest madam Salem, to keep your mindless creatures from attacking those who made it possible for your return.” Salem turned around and looked straight at Mortem.

“And you are?”

“Zenoma Mortem, master of the Order of the Four Seasons. I am the one who instigated this worldwide revolution to create enough negative emotion to blur the lines between our realm and yours.”

“And here I thought Cinder had finally gotten all the other pieces in place. Tell me human, what did you hope to gain out of bringing me back to the realm of light?”

“To be honest my lady, perhaps a chance to rule beside you.” Salem laughed as Mortem said this.

“Foolish human. Do you really think that just because you have a piece of my soul dwelling within your being, you are my equal?”

“Far from it my lady. Like I said, I wish for a place to rule by your side. The humans will answer to me, and I in turn will answer to you. As a token of my good will, I will give back to you the piece of your soul that you left in this world.” As he said this, Mortem extended his arm and let the dark power of the dragon flow from his body back to Salem. Salem embraced the gift with a smile, and continued to laugh while Ozpin looked on in horror.

“You have done well human. However, I don’t plan to rule this world, but destroy it.”

“What?”

“I don’t need to explain my reasoning to somebody who is about to die.” With a simple flick of her wrist, Salem sent Mortem flying out over the edge of the tower and plummeting down to the ground below. As she began walking over to where he fell to confirm his death, Ozpin jumped right in front of her and released an energy burst, knocking Salem back a few feet.

“Don’t forget about me sister.”

“Ha! Your failure is complete brother! The humans have risen up to claim power all for themselves! My point has been proven and all I had to do was sit in the dark realm for these past few eons!”

“Salem, you are only seeing a small piece. You didn’t see when the children I have trained stood against one of your emissaries to protect the world you say they wish to destroy. You haven’t seen how they responded to certain situations regarding racism and fear. You haven’t…”

“All I see right now Ozpin is humanity tearing itself asunder trying to claim the power of our father. Even before I embraced the dark realm, there were warriors who could stand tall in your ideals. But they all faded away. They all became just scattered petals lost in the flames of war.”

“Never. Not while I’m still here.”

“Well you won’t be fore very long.” With that said, the two of them clashed, Ozpin using his cane and Salem having summoned a blade made of pure darkness. The two of them traded blows, each strike created a huge burst of energy that shook the sky. And it was never one sided. One minute Ozpin would be laying down several strikes on Salem, causing a bunch of dark energy to be expelled from her body, then the next minute Salem would be landing blows on Ozpin, causing light energy to be expelled form his body. However, when Ozpin attempted to lean in for a strike, Salem grabbed his arms, and ran him through with her blade, causing Ozpin to collapse in a heap on the floor. As he lay there, his body gave off a bright light and the wound was instantly healed. But before he could get up, Salem started crushing him with her heel, laughing manically while she did so.

“You know, I’ve always pictured what it would be like once I finally got out of the dark realm and returned here to kill you. So many different scenarios and fantasies played in my head, but I never guessed that this would be the end result. That foolish human really did me a favor. Cinder would have only toppled Vale if she managed to bring me back, but the scheme of that mortal means that your world is already falling apart and will make it that much easier for me to destroy it!”

“Please Salem. There’s more to this than you think. Mortem was planning on world domination. I don’t think he’ll stop here.”

“He’s dead Ozpin. Stop trying to prolong your death with petty fears of a man who is already dead.” Suddenly, in a single instant, a sword had just impaled Salem, causing her to cough up blood.

“What do you know, you do bleed.” Salem turned her head to see Mortem standing right behind her, holding his buster sword in place right in her back.

“But…how…I killed you!”

“Unlike your followers, I always know where mine are and what they are capable of.” As soon as he said this, Lord Aeris floated up on an air current and was carrying with her two aura containment modules.

“That technology….” Ozpin sated as he backed away slightly on the ground.

“Yes. Courtesy of the highest technicians of Atlas. You know their capabilities Ozpin, and your sister here is about to die, so I won’t bore you with the details.”

“It will take…more than a simple weapon to end me human.” Lord Mortem chortled at this as he removed the sword and put Salem in a chokehold.

“You have no idea what I am truly capable of. And that was what lead you to your demise.”  
  
  


As the airship took off, everybody on board started strapping themselves in except Nathan. As he looked out the side door, he noticed a giant flash of light coming from Beacon tower. Then seconds later, a burst of energy rocked the airship almost causing Nathan to lose his balance.

“What’s happening back there?” Yang yelled from the cockpit.

“I’m not sure, but I think it was a good idea for us to regroup. I don’t think we’re out of the woods just yet.” Nathan said as he sat down.


	31. Episode 3: Chapter 3: Reset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 of Episode 3 of Order of Seasons

Taiyang Xiao Long was standing on the roof of his house trying to get a better view of what was going on in Vale. He couldn’t make out any of the symbols on the airships, but he recognized that they were indeed attacking the city. He was about to head off to fight the invaders, but stopped when he saw something causing some of the nearby trees to fall over. He jumped down from his roof and got his weapon ready, only to find his daughter dragging a guy in a black coat.

“Ruby! What’s going on?”

“Explain later! Help now!” As she continued to try and move the stranger forward, Taiyang ran over and hoisted the man no problem. Running inside the house, Taiyang headed for the guest bedroom.

“Ruby, get my medical kit from the linen closet and bring me a washcloth!”

“On it!” While Ruby got the needed items, Taiyang placed the stranger on a bed, got him propped up with pillows, and started taking off pieces of clothing to try and find what the damage was. Ruby returned and handed Taiyang the washcloth, which he used to clean off most of the blood.

“Ruby, I need some more information about this guys condition and a name would be helpful in case he wakes up!”

“His name is Miles and he’s got this weird thing where if he uses his gravity Semblance on anything but himself he starts bleeding internally. The damage depends on what exactly he was trying to hold up.”

“This looks bad. What the heck was he holding up?”

“Amity Coliseum. Now can you help him or not?”

“I’ll do everything I can, but I can’t guarantee a full recovery depending on what kind of injuries he has.”

“Just do what you need to do dad. I’ll keep guard outside in case if anything attacks.”

“Be careful Ruby.”

“I will.” Ruby closed the door to the room leaving her father to his own devices, and headed outside. As she stepped outside, she looked up to the sky and saw a strange wave of dark energy fly across the sky. And then a few minutes later, a wave of light energy followed in suit.

“Please be safe everybody.”  
  


As Lord Mortem took the aura of Ozpin and placed it in the containment module, he looked up to see the rest of his high council standing before him.

“Do you plan on betraying us Lord Mortem?”

“Allow me to explain why this is before you attempt to randomly accuse your supreme leader Lord Fulgur.”

“Why do you keep the entirety of the power of Salem within you? I thought we agreed that you would only keep the dragon.”

“I needed to absorb the entirety of Salem so that I could make sure that I gained all the power that was available to me. Now that I have the entirety of her power, I can send a small portion of the power into a containment module so that once we conquer Atlas and bring in the technology we need in order to grant you all the power that I have promised you.”

“At least you still have your priorities straight Lord Mortem.” Adam said surveying the damage. “I would probably have a big head if I just fought against two demi-gods and lived.”

“They still died Lord Taurus. Just because they have great power doesn’t mean they can stop what we have already begun. Now then, you should get moving. Atlas is proving to be stubborn and refuses to give in. You all shall lead the assault, while I will wait here and guard the modules from anyone who may attempt to take them.”

“To hear is to obey.” Lord Hibernis said bowing before Mortem and then turning towards the nearby airship. Lord Aeris was spinning one of her chakrams on her finger, looked down to the ground and picked up Ozpin’s cane. As she held it in her hand, she laughed and tossed it over the side.

“Out with the old, in with the new. Long live the king.”  
  
  


**2 Days Later**  


 

 

Miles was fighting back the flames of his nightmares. He kept seeing the chaos, the debris, the fire. He then saw a piece of debris falling towards Blake, who didn’t see it coming herself.  
  
  
  
“Blake!” Miles shot up suddenly grasping at thin air, sweating and breathing heavily. As he gathered himself, he realized he was lying in somebody’s bed. He had a terrible headache, was bandaged up, and had an IV tube running through his right arm. He tried to move his arm to take the IV out, but it hurt far too much for him to attempt it. As he looked outside, he noticed Weiss talking with Evan. His heart picked up a little bit realizing that his friends were all right. Wanting to go and talk to them, he attempted to get out of bed. But before he could, in walked a tall blond man that Miles felt looked a lot like Yang.

“Ah. You’re up. That’s good.” As soon as he said this he walked over with a glass of water in his hand. “Honestly, I was even wondering why I was told to give this to you if you weren’t up yet. Well, I guess it pays to be prepared.”

“What….”

“Try not to move so much. You’ve been recovering for the last two days. My name is Taiyang Xiao Long. I’m Yang’s dad.”

“Well that explains a lot.”

“I managed to stop most of the internal bleeding and help your organs as best I could, but even with my vast knowledge of medical history, I’m not sure if you can make a full recovery from this.”

“I’m….fine….going outside now….”

“You will do no such thing. You’re still recovering. I’d say another day of sleep will be enough for you before you can head outside.”

“Yeah, I’m out of patience.” Miles said grabbing one of his sword hilts from the side looking to use it as a cane. Before he could go any further, Taiyang grabbed the hilt from him.”

“Look son, you will do as I say and rest.”

“I move at my own pace, not yours. I can sense my aura returning. It will sustain me while I go outside.”

“I am currently the only doctor available to look after your health, and as your doctor….”

“Listen Doc, I don’t know anything about you, and you clearly don’t know anything about me. I will do what I feel is best, and I think it’s best to see what has happened to my friends.”

“Please, just let me help you for one more day.”

“Nope.” With a flick of his wrist, Miles sent Taiyang into the wall. He felt a sharp pain course through his body as he did so, but he pushed it aside as he transferred all the gravitational power he could to make himself lighter so he could head outside. As he got to the front door, he attempted to open the door, but he wasn’t strong enough to do it. He looked over his shoulder and saw Taiyang walking towards him, with an annoyed look on his face.

“Clearly I can’t stop you, so please at least use a proper cane to get around my house.” Miles smiled as Taiyang handed him the cane.

“Thanks. Not just for this, but also for keeping me from dying.”

“Of course.” Taiyang opened the door for Miles to let him out, and Miles started moving forward slowly. As his eyes adjusted to the brightness, he saw Weiss on her Scroll pacing back and forth while Ren, Jaune and Evan were going over a map. Yang and Nathan were over with Sun and Nora chopping firewood, while Pyrrha, Neptune, Velvet and Fox were preparing food on the grill. Miles was about to walk over to the people looking over the map when he noticed something moving in the foliage of the forest. As he looked closer, he recognized Ruby, Natalie, Coco, Yatsuhashi, and Blake with nets filled with fish. He waved his hand weakly towards the small group, and as soon as they recognized him, Blake dropped her net and started running towards him.

“Whoa! Careful!” Ruby yelled, as she had to pull out her scythe in order to catch the fish and keep them from hitting the ground. “I guess somebody’s happy that he’s awake.”

“To be fair, the last time Blake saw him awake he was about to die.” Natalie said poking Ruby in the head.

“Well you’re not wrong. Let’s go see how he’s doing.” As they started heading towards the house once again, Blake had finally reached Miles.

“How are you feeling?”

“Honestly, this still doesn’t compare to the time that Ruby pulled a Zwei lick attack on me.” Miles tried to chuckle, but ended up coughing a little bit.

“Please don’t push yourself too hard. You really should get some rest. I mean, who knows what your body could be going through?”

“Everybody else is okay. You included. That’s good enough for me.”

“You matter too.”

“I don’t need to give a big speech to explain how you and the others matter more to me than myself.” Suddenly, Miles was surprised to see a few tears running down Blake’s face as she hugged him strongly.

“You idiot……” Blake continued to let the tears flow down her face while Miles smiled and returned the hug.

“I’m not going anywhere. I promise you that.”  
  


“So this thing is worldwide?” Miles asked as he was helped to a seat on the patio.

“Yeah. All four kingdoms fell under attack from this Order of the Four Seasons.” Jaune said as he placed the map on the table. “As far as we know, the only kingdom that is still fighting back is Atlas.”

“As to be expected from the worlds largest military power. So what does that mean for us?”

“Well the first thing we wanted to do was to wait and make sure that you would actually wake up.” Evan said as he handed Miles a glass of water. “Blake wanted to wait, so we have been trying to formulate a plan for when you actually did wake up.”

“As of right now, most of the troops for the Order have diverted almost all their attention to Atlas.” Ren said sitting down. “We are too far away and too few in number to actually be of help to Atlas. So we have been trying to figure out a plan to take back Vale.”

“Not everybody managed to make it out of Beacon like we did, so it’s safe to assume that some people are still either trapped or hiding.” Ruby placed some of the fish on the grill as she said this. “If we can raise up a small army, we could take back Vale or at the very least Beacon and try to start a comeback.”

“That’s all fine and good, but what if the Order manages to take down Atlas?” Miles asked. “Then they could just turn around and instead of dealing with the worlds most powerful army, they would instead be dealing with a rag-tag team of students and teachers.”

“I actually have an idea of how to work around that!” Yang said putting a plate of food in front of Miles. “I know this guy who has hundreds of fighters under his employ! They may not be great, but they would give us a much needed numbers boost.”

“All right that’s good. Anything else?”

“I’ve been in touch with my father back in Atlas for the past day. It looks like while it is pure chaos up there, he might be able to get a few Atlas and Schnee Dust Company soldiers to help us out with this attack.”

“Impressive. Anything else?”

“I’m Nora!” Everybody chuckled at Nora’s non sequitur, even Miles managed to crack a smile.

“Hey, by the way, has anybody heard from team JCTB?” Everybody started looking around confused.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen or heard from them since they let for their mission with Ty’s father.” Pyrrha said starting to grow concerned.

“I haven’t been in touch with any of them either.” Nathan remarked.

“Well, we aren’t really that hard to find.” Everybody suddenly turned to see all of Team JCTB walking out of the forest, completely tired and seemingly defeated. Evan was the first to react running over to Christy and giving her a big hug. Next Pyrrha and Janue followed suit heading towards Jacob. Nora and Natalie helped attend to Brooklyn while Ty simply walked over to Miles.

“You look terrible.” Ty said as he looked at Miles’ condition.

“Just a flesh wound. Where’s your old man?” Ty fell silent for a second.

“You know him. Always being the one guy wanting to take one for the team. I guess it…finally caught up to him…” Ty started choking up as he said this, prompting Miles to get up and give him a hug. Nothing else was said after that. Nothing else was necessary.  


 

“So that’s how it all went down. I’m sorry to hear that.” Miles said after JCTB finished up explaining everything.

“I’m impressed that we didn’t see them coming in any way shape or form.” Evan said as he handed out drinks to the newest arrivals. “They kept things running air tight in that organization.”

“They had to.” Ty said as he gulped down his water. “Can’t really attempt to take over the world if everybody knows about you.”

“Fair enough. But world domination? Is that really it?” Yang asked. “I mean, technically that’s what Cinder wanted as well, she just didn’t bring a giant army to get it done for her.”

“There’s a bit more to it then that.” Jacob said. “Their leader, Zenoma Mortem, is trying to gain control of the aura of each of the four maidens, Ozpin, and apparently the person or creature that created all the Grimm.” As soon as Jacob said this, everybody let out a collective,

“What?”

“I couldn’t make this up if I wanted to.”

“How could only one person create all the Grimm in the world?” Natalie said confused. “I mean, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“All I know is what he told me. Besides, how the Grimm came into being should be the least of our worries now. We should focus on how to fight back against this threat.”

“Well then, has he already handed off the power of the maidens to his subordinates yet?”

“Not just yet. First he needs a device from Atlas that will allow him to transfer the aura and have it override the laws of aura.”

“Laws?” Pyrrha asked. “What do you mean? I almost wielded the Fall Maiden’s aura myself. Or at least half of it.”

“Because the machine broke the laws. An aura can’t be naturally transferred from one soul to the other unless it is either an inherent power of a person like Mortem, or if the aura is forced on a person like with the machine. That’s why he can’t just absorb the aura and give it to somebody else. The aura wouldn’t accept the host.”

“So that buys us some time. The machine they need is in Atlas correct?” Miles asked.

“Right. That’s why they have diverted all their attention to Atlas. So long as it still stands, we could begin to slowly but surely take them down.”

“All right then. We have our army, and we have our goal. Take back Vale and figure out where the Maidens are hidden so that we can throw a huge monkey wrench into their plans. Weiss, tell your father to start preparing the spare troops down here and to meet us at these coordinates at this specific time.” Miles wrote down all the information on a piece of paper and handed it to Weiss.

“This is two days away! Why wait for them to get here?”

“First off, in case if things go wrong back in Atlas, the troops are still there to lend a hand. Second, if we have them show up now, I’m sure that the Order has some form of radar or something to detect incoming ships and vehicles. So until we get our small army together, I think it would be best if they remained a secret until we were ready for the invasion.”

“So what do we do in the meantime?” Jaune asked.

“For the remainder of today, we should rest up. I still need to recover, and Christy can’t heal me up until she is fully rested.”

“I told you Miles, I can heal you right now!”

“No. You guys have been hiking for days. You need some sleep. Besides, another day of rest for me might mean fewer problems for when you patch me up.”

“Fine. So what do we do for the time being?”

“For now, we rest. We have a plan in place, and we have a time frame. Tomorrow night, we sneak into Vale and start getting our small army together. The next day at sunset, we begin our attack. Everybody got it?” They all nodded “Great. Now then, I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. Let’s eat!” Everybody smiled and started moving around to get food and start eating. For a few short minutes, they were able to forget about the fact that the world was falling to pieces. That they were about to go fight in a war where victory was uncertain. But such a simple moment helped put everyone at ease, and let them feel like they were still the same students that were dreaming of a brighter future.  


 

Natalie handed Yang the last of the dishes before heading to the living room to turn in for the night. However, as she looked down the hall, she saw Taiyang placing a new IV in Miles’ arm. She then turned and walked into the room, but didn’t say anything as she walked in.

“Ah. Hello Natalie. “ Taiyang said finishing up with Miles. “Something I can help you with?”

“Can I talk to him alone please?”

“Sure thing. I’m pretty much done here anyways.” Picking up his stuff, Taiyang walked out of the room, leaving the two of them in silence.

“Don’t tell me that the almighty fearless leader is getting cold feet the night before the battle?” Miles joked trying to lighten the mood.

“Far from it. It’s just that, I think that somebody else should lead this mission.”

“Are you still having doubts about your ability as leader?”

“How did you even know about that?”

“Firstly, Evan mentioned it to me, and secondly, I’ve noticed a bit of hesitation on the battlefield and you would wait for somebody else to try and figure out a solution to a battle situation.”

“Okay, but am I wrong? Aren’t you better for leading this mission than I am? I mean you practically came up with this plan all by yourself today after having just come out of a coma caused by almost dying from holding up an entire arena!”

“Yeah? So?”

“So, clearly you are the person who should lead! You don’t ever stop moving forward and you always know what to do!”

“I guess Evan’s words of advice fell on deaf ears.”

“What he said doesn’t apply here! I don’t care if I care about people a whole lot, it won’t get the job done!”

“Natalie, I worry and care about people all the time. But not the way you do. I think the reason you keep feeling like you aren’t good enough to be leader is because you are afraid of the response people would have if you messed something up. A legitimate fear. But the thing is, I still think you are supposed to be the leader of this team.”

“Why does everybody think I should do this? Why does everybody think I have the strength to stand up to these kinds of challenges? I can’t! I’m not good enough for this!”

“Will you stop rolling around in self-doubt for a few seconds? You can stand up to challenges! Heck, you even stood up to me.”

“What?”

“Back on the day we first met, I attacked you without reason. I was trying to be a jerk. I was so absorbed in the idea that I was going to prove Blake wrong and the fact that nobody could ever understand what it meant to be alone. I was absorbed in my own agenda that I completely started forgetting other people existed. But then when you fought against me, it reminded me of when I was a kid. When I had dreams. And ever since we’ve been teammates, I’ve been learning from you every step of the way. Honestly, I don’t think me and Blake would have become what we are today if you hadn’t knocked some sense into my head.”

“Again, that’s great for character building or whatever, but that won’t help us win this fight!”

“In a way it will. If what has happened over the last few days happened back before the Emerald Forest, then I might have agreed with you and taken the reins myself. But I think after all this time, I’ve learned to trust in more than just tactics and strength.”

“If there’s a point to this Miles, I’m dying to hear it.” Miles simply smiled, and messed up Natalie’s hair with his hand.

“In short, I’d follow your leadership even if it took us to the darkest abyss.” Natalie looked up at Miles and gave him a confused look.

“You mean that?”

“With every fiber of my being. I’m honored that I get to call you team leader.” Natalie choked up a little bit and turned completely invisible.

“Thanks Miles.”

“Don’t mention it.”  
  
  
  
  
“What is the status of the science center Lord Hibernis?”

“As of right now, we have managed to set up a perimeter, and are currently pushing back the defenses of the enemy and will have the device within our possession in about one day’s time. I apologize for the delay Lord Mortem.”

“No need to apologize. I am a patient man. Just get what we require and bring it to me.”

“Of course Lord Mortem. Over and out.” After cutting out the call, Mortem stood up and walked over to greet an incoming airship. As the doors opened, Peter Strohl was shoved out and onto the ground at Lord Mortem’s feet.

“My my, how the proud have fallen.” Peter continued to just lie there on the ground. “I guess the re-education program works as it promised. Tell me Mr. Strohl, who is it that you serve?”

“I serve only the commands of Zenoma Mortem. I am ready to comply.”

“Good. Your son managed to escape from my facility a few days ago. If he ever shows up around here, what will you do?”

“What would you have me do?”

“Kill him.”

“Then I will kill him my lord.”

“Very good.”


	32. Episode 3: Chapter 4: Ignition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4 of Episode 3 of Order of Seasons

As everybody walked over to the shores of Patch overlooking Vale, all the Dust users created ice pods with handles on the inside.

“All right, now remember everybody, each team is going to use these pods to walk across the bottom of the river.” Natalie said as she and Ruby picked up their pod. “Everybody remember their assignments?”

“Me and Nathan are heading down to meet up with and convince my friend to help fight alongside us in the final confrontation tonight.” Yang said as she easily picked up her pod. “Hopefully he will fight with us, and with his numbers, we might actually have a chance of countering the army we’re going to have to fight.”

“Miles and I are going to try and sneak into the White Fang armory and take over a large portion of their weaponry for our own army tonight." Blake said putting her weapon on her back.  "Given the fact that I’m a Faunus, they should let me in with no questions asked. Plus, if I bring in Miles as a prisoner, they might be a bit more willing to trust me. So long as nobody recognizes me, I should be all right.”

“Evan and myself are going to try to sneak into the communication hub for the Order in downtown Vale and prepare a few communication channels for ourselves as well as knock their out whenever we say so.” Christy said as she placed her axes in her hilts. “With luck, we can knock all communications out before the reinforcements from Atlas arrive, and also keep the enemy here in the dark about what is happening in Atlas.”

“Weiss, Neptune, and Team CFVY are going to stay here with the airship to stay in touch with said reinforcements from Atlas. The rest of us are going to scour the city for survivors and those who can still fight with us later tonight.” Jacob said placing his sword inside his pod. “Is everybody ready to go?”

“Let’s get started.” Natalie said as she and Ruby started walking into the river.  
  
  
  
  
Mortem quickly punched a few numbers into his Scroll and ran yet another simulation.

“Results on the simulation computer?”

“RESULTS NEGATIVE LORD MORTEM.”

“This doesn’t bode well. How is it after twenty different simulations the most successful one only has a 2% chance of success?”

“ACCORDING TO THE NUMBERS LORD MORTEM, IT MIGHT BE BEST TO ATTEMPT TO RUN SIMULATION ONE ENTITY INSTEAD OF SIMULATION DIFFERENT PIECES.”

“I just fear that the One Entity program might take too long for what I need in order to accomplish my overall goal. If it lasts longer than it should, that leaves me vulnerable to incoming attacks.”

“PERHAPS A GUARDIAN WOULD BE BENEFICIAL?”

“That’s actually not a bad idea. Summon the assassin.”

“AT ONCE LORD MORTEM.”  
  
  


As soon as they reached the opposite shore, they left the pods in the river to float away. Quickly drying off, each team went their own separate directions. Natalie and Ruby took point for the team searching for survivors while Jacob took up the rear. As they headed into the city, they almost didn’t recognize it. Everything was in shambles. Buildings collapsed, streets torn asunder, and the most disturbing part was the number of bodies. Civilians, Huntsmen and Huntresses alike, all strewn across the way, with Grimm just simply stalking high above on rooftops and in the sky.

“By the stars….” Pyrrha said trying to hold back tears. Nobody was sure how to react other than keep moving forward.

“How did this happen?” Jaune asked. “How did it get so bad?”

“This is the result of war.” Ren said as he pulled out his weapons. “Nobody is ever spared. I can only imagine how bad it must be in Atlas right now.”

“Well, that’s why we’re here now.” Ruby said as she pulled out her weapon to slice a nearby Grimm in two. “To make sure that that it won’t continue, and to save who we can.”  
  


 

Yang and Nathan found an unattended motorcycle and rode it over to what was the seedier part of town. As they started getting closer to their destination, a couple of small Nevermores flew in from above and started attacking them. Nathan quickly threw his clubs up into the air and managed to cause all the Grimm to dissipate so they could continue.

“Piece of cake.” He said as he grabbed his club out of the air.

“Don’t get cocky! We’ve got another swarm coming in at our seven o’clock.” Nathan turned around and was about to throw his clubs again when Yang abruptly stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well, that right there is our destination,” Yang said pointing at a giant door, “but I don’t want a giant horde of Grimm to be hanging around outside and keeping us locked in!”

“All right then, what’s the play?”

“I’m going to lead them away form here, you get inside and try to get started on convincing them to join us!”

“How do I convince them I’m on their side?”

“Just tell them you know me and they should fall right over and let you in.”

“And if they don’t?”

“Bust your way inside and then I’ll straighten them out once I lose these darn birds! Now scoot!” With that said, Yang pushed Nathan off the motorcycle, sending him spinning into a nearby alley while she rode off down the road, looking over her shoulder to occasionally launch a few shots at the enemy, and continued down the dark street. Nathan collected himself, destroyed the few Grimm that tailed off to try and take him out, and then walked over and pounded on the door.

“No outsiders allowed!” A voice yelled from the other side.

“Let me in! I’ve got business with the owner!”

“How do we know this isn’t a trap?”

“I’m a friend of Yang Xiao Long!”  
  
  


Evan was walking along in his illusion space inching closer and closer to the front gates of the outpost. As he reached the edge of the outpost, he waited for them open the gates so he could sneak inside. As soon as he accomplished this, he expanded the illusion space to cover the gate as he opened it up himself to let Christy in. As soon as she snuck inside, they closed the gate and Evan dropped the illusion space as soon as they found some cover.

“You got the flash drive?” Evan asked.

“Ready to go as soon as we’re inside.” Chirsty said as she grabbed her weapons and started moving forward. Searchlights swept the compound in a rhythmic pattern. It was easy enough for the two of them to simply watch for the openings and move forward and quickly to avoid detection. They got to the first locked door with a pin pad. Christy pulled out a book of codes and quickly punched in a number and the door swung open. There weren’t even any guards on the other side of the door as they went deeper and deeper into the compound.

“Where is everybody?” Evan asked as they reached the door to the central control room.

“Maybe they needed more troops in Atlas?”

“They needed so many troops they couldn’t bother to leave anybody behind to guard their communication hub?”

“Just roll with it! This means we can get the job done a lot quicker!” They opened the door and were about to knock out whoever was at the controls, but they then realized that he was actually still asleep. Moving quietly then, the walked over to the main console, Christy put in the flash drive and started typing away until a green light flashed on the screen.

“All right then.” Christy said as she removed the flash drive. “We can now communicate via Scrolls without anybody listening in. And as soon as we push the remote button, all communications within the Order will be on lockdown. They won’t get any reinforcements once the attack begins.”

“All right then. Let’s rejoin the others”  
  
  


“Is that too tight Miles?”

“Blake, this needs to look convincing. Trust me, this is nothing compared to what I’ve gone through these past few days.”

“Good point. Well, how’s this?” As she tightened the straps, Miles winced a little bit.

“I need to break out of these in an instant Blake! I can’t do that if I can’t even feel my hands!”

“I thought this was nothing Mr. Tough Guy.” Miles blushed a bit as Blake loosened the straps a bit. “All right then. You ready to go?”

“Hopefully I’m a better actor than I think I am.” The two of them walked down a dark alleyway, Miles struggling as they walked. “Let me go you dumb animal!” He yelled.

“Shut up you pathetic human! Know your place!” Blake said as she punched Miles and threw him to the ground. Suddenly, a side door opened and two White Fang members jumped out.

“What’s the meaning of this?” One of the guards asked.

“My name is Selina Grant.” Blake said as she picked up Miles. “I’m interested in joining the White Fang. And to prove my loyalty, I’ve brought you this human prisoner.”

“Get your paws off me you dumb cat!” Miles said as he continued thrashing, to which Blake punched him again and he shut up.

“We have no need for prisoners Ms. Grant.” The guard said. “Just kill him before us and that will be enough to prove your loyalty to us.”

“I would be more than happy to, but this human knows of a resistance that has been growing underground.”

“A resistance against the White Fang?”

“A resistance against the new world order.” The guards pondered this for a second, and then motioned for her to bring Miles inside, which she obliged.

“So what should I do with this human then?”

“Lord Taurus is in Atlas right now leading the invasion, so for the time being, our Lieutenant will ask the questions about this resistance.” They then took a sharp turn and walked into a giant warehouse filled to the brim with weapons. Mech suits, guns, swords, you name it, they had it. Suddenly, Miles was thrown down to the ground yet again and found himself face to face with a White Fang member with a complete facemask instead of the traditional eye mask.

“What is this?” the man in the mask asked.

“Lieutenant! This here is a human that a new recruit brought in! This sister Faunus here claims that this human knows of a secret resistance that is planning some kind of attack!” The Lieutenant, now intrigued by this new information, kneeled down and got right into Miles’ face, staring at him.

“So who talks first? You talk first? I talk first? It’s hard to tell with the mask in the way.” Suddenly, the Lieutenant grabbed Miles by the throat and lifted him straight up into the air. “Okay I guess you talk first.”

“What is this resistance? Where are you guys located?”

“Oh come on. You honestly think lifting me straight up into the air and threatening my life is going to get me to talk? I have all the info you need! If you kill me, then you lose that information!” The lieutenant dropped Miles down to the ground, and pulled out his giant chainsaw weapon.

“I will make you talk, one way or another.”

“Maybe some other time chuckles. Blake?” As soon as he said this, Blake drew her weapon and freed Miles of his bonds who quickly jumped up, sent the lieutenant flying, and re-claimed his weapons from Blake who was keeping them on her back.

“Are you sure you’re up for a fight like this Miles? You did just come off a huge injury.”

“Please. After holding up a building? This is just a warm up for later!”

“Well don’t go too crazy.”

“Look who’s talking.” They both grinned, and immediately leapt into action beginning to take down all those around them.  
  
  


As Lord Mortem continued to wait, he felt a weird sensation in the back of his head. He stood up and walked over to the edge of the tower, and gazed out into the horizon.

“Something’s wrong.” He quickly then turned and walked over to the radio he had up there with him. “Lord Taurus. Report in.” For a few minutes, there was silence, but then the radio started chirping as it took a second for the message to come through.

“…..logies Lord Mortem. I was busy leading one of the strike teams on the Atlas Academy Building. In about a day or so we should….”

“Lord Taurus, have you secured the device?”

“Uh…yes. We managed to secure it a few hours ago. It is waiting here for your arrival with the aura of Ozpin, Salem, and the Maidens.”

“New orders. You and the rest of the council are to take the device and bring it here to me in Vale. I expect you to arrive by this evening.”

“But my lord, we are getting closer to taking down Atlas. Are you really willing to give up our advantage?”

“By the time we finish here tonight, not even the world’s strongest armies can stand against what we have built. Bring everybody to me at fast as possible Lord Taurus.”

“Yes Lord Mortem. I’ll pass the word along.” After that was said, the radio went dead and the computer chirped up.

“LORD MORTEM, I MAY HAVE FOUND A SOLUTION TO THE PROGRAM.”

“Let’s hear it.”  
  
  


“Look kid, I don’t know you, and I don’t know any Yang, okay? So get the heck out of my bar!”

“Are you kidding me?” Nathan said as he slammed his fist on the table. “She told me that she’s been here twice already!”

“Sorry kid. I don’t know what to tell you other than get out of my bar!”

“She’s going to be here any minute now! Couldn’t you just wait until then to see if you know her or not?”

“I’m not taking any chances with some random kid who shows up on my doorstep. Me and my boys are low on actual necessary supplies as it is! We’ve even had to use some of the alcohol in the drinks to treat some of the wounds on my men! So get out before I throw you out!” Clearly annoyed, Nathan threw one of his clubs towards the bar, which ricocheted off the glasses and knocked them to the countertop without breaking them, then knocked a record off the stack and started playing the “I Burn” remix that Casey Williams made a few years ago, and then proceeded to clock ten of Junior’s guys in the head before returning to Nathan’s hand just as Yang walked in the door.

“Hey babe!” Nathan said as he put his clubs away.

“You know Blondie?” Junior said as his face turned white after seeing both Nathan’s display and Yang walking in. Nathan, not saying a word, walked over to the bar and started mixing two drinks, and slid one over to Yang as she reached the bar.

“Aw, you even remembered the little umbrella!” She said as she took a drink.  
  
  


“So you want to hire my boys to try and drive out these invaders?” Junior said as he had himself a quick drink.”

“Junior, we really need your help on this one.” Yang said. “We’re vastly outnumbered, and whatever help we can get would be greatly appreciated.

“Look, I want these guys gone as much as you do. But what’s in it for me?”

“I can try to convince Ozpin to give you and your gang full pardons for your help in this. You can just run the bar without having to worry about the police breathing down your neck about the robbery and drug dealings that go on in this part of town.”

“Unless you can promise it Blondie, I’m going to have to still say no.”

“Come on man, this isn’t rocket science!” Nathan said having finished off his own drink. “Just because she can’t guarantee it doesn’t mean it won’t happen! It’s better than just hiding away in here right?”

“Look kid, I admire your guts, but the thing is, I have to think about the future. Maybe this new ruler would be super cool and actually let me have a hand in running this town.”

“Or he could have your head turned inside out and stuck up on a wall.” Yang said cracking a smile. Junior shuddered a bit at this thought.

“Good point. Blondie, my men are yours. When do you need them?”

“The big battle is tonight at sundown at Beacon.”

“Of course it is.” Junior sighed and took another drink.  
  
  


Ty hoisted up a huge chunk of debris that was keeping Team CRDL trapped beneath a shop. As everybody helped them out and got them water, they felt a few explosions in the ground.

“I hope that’s us getting something done.” Jaune said as he helped get Cardin to his feet.

“Me too.” Ruby said as she made sure there wasn’t anybody left beneath the rubble before Ty dropped the stone slab. “I mean, we might be able to get numbers on our side, but I don’t think we have the firepower needed to take down an army.” Suddenly, a large explosion went off in a warehouse just down the street from where they all were. As soon as the dust settled, they saw Blake walking alongside a giant mech being piloted by Miles.

“Did somebody say huge guns?” Miles said with a grin on his face.

“Actually, nobody did.” Ty said with a grin as he walked over. “But this is some much needed firepower. How tough was it to get it?”

“You remember that one weapons depot in Mistral?”

“Say no more.”  
  
  


The airship started heading off after dropping its lone passenger onto the top of the tower. Angela walked forward and kneeled before Lord Mortem.

“I’m glad you were able to arrive on such short notice Assassin. Everything seems to be moving in motion much faster than previously anticipated. I trust you know what I need you to do when the time comes?”

“Yes my lord.”

“Very good. Now wait in the shadows while my council arrives.” Angela nodded her head and leapt off into hiding as another airship began its final descent to the tower. As the doors opened, Lord Hibernis walked out first carrying a giant machine with several tubes and electrical ports, while the others walked out each carrying a pod large enough to fit a person inside. As they made their way to the center of the tower, the began assembling it into a giant machine meant to transfer aura from person to person. First they hooked up the pods and then the aura canisters followed.

“Everything is ready Lord Mortem.” Lord Memoriare said. “What should we do now?”

“Each of you is to get into your respective pods” Lord Mortem said. “I will place the power of Salem into the last canister and the computer will take it from there.” With smiles on their faces, each of the high council members moved towards their pods in anticipation, but stopped short when a flare went off nearby the dock of the academy. As they all rushed to the edge, they saw waiting for them was a small band of students ready to go to war. And then, all of a sudden, multiple airships appeared dropping off mech suits and solders, forming a small army now standing before them. Before they could react, the students all started rushing forward screaming at the top of their lungs.

“What should we do my lord?” Lord Aeris asked. Lord Mortem didn’t say a word, but simply put up his hand and summoned a gigantic horde of Grimm out of thin air.

“You six take care of them. I will stay here and guard the device and make the final preparations.”

“Why won’t you fight with us Lord Mortem?” Lord Fulgur asked. “We clearly have the upper hand.”

“What if there are more of them lying in wait wanting to take the power for themselves Lord Fulgur? I am the most powerful amongst all of you and can handle a few on my own. Now do as I command!”

“Yes my lord.” They all said before leaping off the tower and heading into battle. As soon as they were gone, Lord Mortem turned to the machine, and pulled out another empty container and stored the power of Salem within it. He then hooked it up to the machine and turned it on.

“Computer, start running the program.”

“AT ONCE LORD MORTEM.” While the computer got started, Angela leapt up to the top once again.

“What are my orders my lord?”

“Can you get in touch with reinforcements outside of this city?”

“No my lord. It would seem that my Scroll is disconnected.”

“These children came prepared. Very well then. Deal with them at once assassin. No one is to live this time. Also, I’ve stored Peter Strohl in a holding cell a few floors down. Take him and whoever else you find and fight the enemy.”

“At once my lord.”  
  
  


As they continued to run forward, they noticed the large horde of Grimm coming towards them.

“Am I the only one getting a huge sense of déjà vu right now?” Nora asked.

“Focus Nora! We can make connections once we are victorious!” Ren said as he opened fire on some incoming Griffons.

“Well, we’ve got a mission in front of us.” Nathan said with a smile. “What are our orders Natls?” Natalie took a quick deep breath, and then looked forward with determination.

“Destroy the Grimm, take down any White Fang or otherwise that aren’t on our side, and capture Beacon Tower!”

“Yes ma’am!” Everybody said before splitting into their specific teams. Miles, Ruby, Blake and Natalie still stayed the course heading straight for Beacon Tower.

“All right kids. Let’s go to war.” Miles said as he drew his weapons.


	33. Episode 3: Chapter 5: Launch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 5 of Episode 3 of Order of Seasons

Nathan led the charge forward on the left flank while Yang, Evan and Christy tailed behind him. As they continued forward, more and more giant hordes of Grimm swarmed and attacked them, forcing them to slow their advance. They almost came to a complete stop when they had to jump out of the way of something falling from the sky at a great speed. When it landed, it created a crater in the ground. When the dust settled, standing before them was Lord Hibernis, his weapon at the ready. A split second later, Lord Fulgur, Adam Taurus, and Lord Aeris landed beside him.

“You always like to make an entrance, don’t you Firma?” Lord Aeris joked.

“I provide the entry, you provide the color commentary. That seems to be the way this goes.”

“Could you two shut up for one second and actually acknowledge the fact that we are here to do our jobs?” Adam said clearly annoyed.

“I’ve got the one with the spear.” Lord Fulgur said. “Lord Aeris, I suggest you take down the kid with the clubs, Adam, you take…”

“STOP TALKING AND FIGHT ALREADY!” Nathan yelled as he launched himself towards Adam, knocking him back as they began fighting. Not wasting any time, Yang decided to leap straight at Lord Aeris, while Christy went full tilt at Lord Hibernis. Leaving Evan to defend himself from an incoming attack from Lord Fulgur.

“Why do I always get the weakest of fighters?” Lord Hibernis groaned.

“Don’t look down on me!” Christy yelled. “I am a huntress, like my friends beside me!”

“The I look forward to breaking down your resolve.”  
  
  


Ty, Jacob, Ren, and Junior and his army rushed towards the nearby horde of Grimm on the docks that were keeping the airship holding some of their comrades from landing safely. Coco was blasting them with her gatling gun, but it wasn’t quite enough. Ty morphed his weapon to bazooka form and launched a projectile to thin out the enemy. Junior did the same thing at a different patch of enemies, just in time for them all to rush forward and clear the path almost instantaneously. With the way open, the airship landed and everybody managed to get off and join the battle.

“Keep moving old man!” Ty yelled to Junior as he morphed his weapon back to sword form. “These things aren’t slowing down anytime soon.”

“You know I’m older than you…” Junior groaned as he smacked a Grimm off the side of the docks. Suddenly, a large number of Junior’s men were being tossed and slashed to pieces. Jacob ran forward to see the assassin and Leo Odi clearing out their army, but what caught his attention was the man who was to the assassin’s right that was slicing away.

“Father.” By simply hearing these words, Peter looked up and saw his son standing before him with anger in his eyes. “You killed my mother father. Your own wife. In the name of her which you killed, I will destroy you.” Still not saying anything, Peter raised his blade and prepared to face his own son. Meanwhile, Ty and Junior had started clashing with Leo and the assassin.

“So, the child of the Demon Slayer, huh?” Leo said as he parried one of Ty’s attacks. “I look forward to adding you to my kill list on my way to the top.”

“You keep talking nonstop and you’ll just end up dead you idiot.” Ty said as he pulled back to take another swing. Junior on the other hand was about to go toe to toe with the assassin, but it jumped out of the way of his attack and made a beeline for the team that was moving up the right flank, completely ignoring Junior.

“Was it something I said?” Junior didn’t even have any time to think before he realized he was under attack again. After blocking the incoming attack, he looked up and recognized Lord Memoriare.  
  
  


Brooklyn tailed behind Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Sun as they cleared the path towards the tower. All of a sudden, the assassin jumped right in front of them, removed her mask and raised her blade to point right at Brooklyn. Everybody skidded to a halt for a split second.

“Only one person?” Sun said as he twirled his staff around to battle position. “This is going to be easy!”

“This one’s mine.” Brooklyn said as she pushed everybody aside and faced Angela. “You guys go on ahead. I don’t think she’s going to bother you at all.” Pyrrha, Jaune and Sun all acknowledged this and headed off, while Nora stayed behind and patted Brooklyn on the shoulder.

“Break her legs kid.”

“I’ll do you one better.”

“I like your attitude.” Nora said before rushing off to join the rest of her friends. Brooklyn switched her weapon from rifle form to scimitar form, and rushed straight at Angela. The two of them were going toe to toe for a few minutes, neither one really having the upper hand. As Brooklyn continued to fight however, her head started hurting more and more.

“What did you do to me?!” Brooklyn yelled as she swung her weapon down so hard that it caused the ground to split open. Angela managed to dodge the attack and move forward again, but it still seemed like there was no determining a winner.  
  
  


Lord Memoriare grasped his chest in pain while trying to block an incoming attack from Junior. He blocked the first swing, but the second one landed square in his chest, knocking him back and causing a few orbs of light to fly out of his body. Two of the orbs he managed to catch, but a few managed to escape from his clutches.

“Blast it Angela, I told you to stay away from her. She’s going to kill you and I might die trying to keep our promise!”  
  
  
  
  
Christy jumped back as Lord Hibernis cracked his whip causing large amounts of debris to fly up and nearly hit Christy in the arm. She managed to knock it back with one of her axes however as she reset herself. Morphing one of her axes to shotgun form, she leapt up and started firing shots at Hibernis as she started falling towards him to land a powerful hit. Hibernis tried to dodge the attack, but he was far too distracted by the hail of bullets that he ended up taking the hit head on.

“Impressive. I may have underestimated your power.”

“Yeah, people usually do.”

“I wonder if your spirit is as powerful.” As he said this, he kicked her back, sending her spiraling across the ground. “All you are is just something to keep your friends alive. You may think you have value, but all you are is just an asset.”

“I help my friends.” Christy said as she got up. “That’s all that matters.” 

“Then your friends had better learn how to live without you.”  
  
  


Yang was struggling against Lord Aeris. She felt like she was fighting Neo all over again back on that train. Only difference was that this time she was pretty well rested and she was still losing to Aeris. Aeris didn’t slow down even for a second. She quickly spun around and hit Yang with a gust of wind that knocked her back into a nearby wall, knocking her unconscious. She was about to make sure Yang was dead, but then she saw Adam being thrown out the window of the cafeteria and was heading right towards her. She rolled her eyes as she used a gust of air to help cushion his fall. As he got up, Lord Aeris started laughing.

“He’s just a kid Adam! And you’re struggling against him?!”

“Don’t underestimate him. He’s being powered by his desire for vengeance for what I did to his home several years ago.”

“If he’s blinded by revenge, shouldn’t that make it easier to find holes in his attacks?”

“He has a strong defense Lord Aeris. Take a look.” As he said this, Nathan started walking towards the two of them, his body completely enveloped in a bright crimson red Aura burn. Lord Aeris smiled, and rushed towards Nathan, ready to strike him right in the head. However, her weapon moved as if a magnet was trying to force itself to connect with the opposite polarity. Nathan then punched Lord Aeris with such force that she fell back as well to where Adam was.

“Well, you weren’t kidding about his power.”

“You have a plan Lord Aeris? I would like to remain alive long enough to receive ultimate power.”

“Just follow my lead. And try to keep up.”  
  
  


Brooklyn started trying to use the pain from her headache to focus on her opponent. She started truly taking strides to gain the upper hand. As she started to gain more and more ground, she finally managed to knock Angela far back enough and completely off guard to morph her weapon into rifle form and then start unloading a few rounds into her chest, causing her to drop her weapon. Before she could recover, Brooklyn already had her sword at her throat.

“Last chance. Tell me how you got that pendant.” Angela remained silent, causing Brooklyn even more rage. “Fine! Die! See if I care!”

“Thank you.”  
  
  


Lord Memoriare got knocked back even further, and was almost to the edge of the docks. Junior landed another strong blow on him, and another light orb flew out of his body.

“Forget it. I’ll just steal the memory back from her later. Angela won’t die anytime soon.”  
  
  


Brooklyn pulled her blade back, and instantly ran it right through Angela. As she pulled out her blade, she saw an orb of light flying right towards her, and suddenly flew right into her head. In that instant, her headache intensified. Brooklyn fell to her knees, clasping her head in pain as images started flooding her head. She saw a woman holding her in her arms, giving her a kiss on the forehead. She saw a woman give her the first bracelet weapon she ever wielded surrounded by streamers and a cake. She saw a woman give her another kiss on the forehead before a man clasped her head and caused her to forget everything. Once the images stopped, Brooklyn looked up at Angela once more with tears in her eyes.

“Mom?”

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t want you to find out.” As she said this, Angela fell to the ground and died, leaving Brooklyn to just sit there, not sure how to react other than cry.  
  
  


Whatever advantage Nathan had was quickly starting to disappear, as Lord Aeris started using gusts of wind to slowly but surely keep his Aura burn at bay. Adam started slicing his chest to start weakening him, while Aeris threw her chakrams at the new openings on his wrists, causing him to drop his clubs to the ground. And with one last strike, Adam forced Nathan to the ground, and held him at sword point.

“Aren’t you that stupid kid who ran out to fight me after I killed all of Aequo in front of that other kid?”

“Why else do you think I’m trying to kill you?”

“A lot of people want to kill me kid. Get in line. But I’ll give you the same advice I gave your friend all those years ago. This is what happens when you try to be a hero. No matter what you do in life, everything you care about will die.”

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!” Adam turned to see Yang launching herself towards Adam, her gauntlets at the ready. However, all of a sudden, Lord Aeris leapt up, took one of her chakrams, and sliced her hand right off, then knocking her down to the ground.

“YANG!” Nathan yelled as he tried to get up. But Adam kept him pinned to the ground, and stabbed him right in the chest.

“Come along Lord Aeris. Our job here is done.”

“You aren’t going to kill them now Adam?”

“He’s going to die anyways. I purposefully avoided a vital spot. Let him wallow in pain for a bit longer.” As they left, Nathan started crawling towards Yang, and grabbed her other hand, crying his eyes out.

“Not again…by the stars please not again….”  
  
  


“Computer, how are we doing?”

“THE COCKTAIL IS MIXING LORD MORTEM.”

“How much longer?”

“TEN MINUTES.”

“I’ll soon have far more time than ten minutes on my hand. I can wait.”


	34. Episode 3: Chapter 6: Impact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 6 of Episode 3 of Order of Seasons

Evan jumped back and quickly morphed his weapon to rifle form and fired a few shots at Lord Fulgur, trying to keep him from summoning lighting bolts. As soon as he landed, he rushed forward and pinned the bow down with his gauntlet and landed a crushing blow to Lord Fulgur’s chest with his spear. As he went flying back, Lord Fulgur had to stab his bow in the ground to keep himself from flying any further towards the mountains.

“You got spirit kid. I’ll give you that.”

“Talk when you’re actually winning.” Evan said as he threw his spear at Lord Fulgur pinning him to a nearby pillar. As he tried to free himself, Evan rushed forward and punched him right in the face.  
  


Jacob leapt up and threw three knives to the ground creating a ring of explosions where his father was supposed to be standing. But he had already dodged the attack and was heading towards a nearby building to run up the side and start engaging Jacob in close quarters combat.

“Smart father. You knew you couldn’t beat me in ranged combat so you slunk back to what you are familiar with like the coward you are. But I don’t care where you run; I won’t stop until I have completely destroyed you.” Peter just simply continued to parry Jacob’s attacks, not saying a word, his eyes completely blank. “At least say something you son of a….”  
  


Christy tried to block Lord Hibernis’ whip, but the attack simply hit the axe she was using for defense and sent her flying towards a nearby wall, knocking her aura levels down extremely.

“All the bravado in the world is not enough to defeat me child.” Lord Hibernis said as he started walking towards the almost limp body of Christy. “No matter how much you care about something, unless you have to power to back it up, you will never truly attain true victory.”

“And I thought…. I was the one who talked too much…” Christy said as she started firing shots at her opponent, which he easily dodged.

“Unlike you, I have the power to back up my words child. Allow me to demonstrate.”  
  


Natalie and her squad continued to slice through hordes of Grimm on their way to Beacon tower. There didn’t seem to be a ton of resistance as they got closer, which made life pretty easy as they started getting close to the base of the tower. As Ruby sliced another Beowolf in half, the team gathered up at the base, as they tried to knock the doors down.

“We really needed Yang or Grover for this one.” Miles said as he watched Natalie and Ruby try to slice the door open but fail.

“What do you suggest then?” Blake asked as she fired a few rounds at a nearby pack of Grimm.

“Natalie’s in charge here. What’s the plan fearless leader?” Natalie looked around the base of the tower, and then looked up towards the very top.

“Is it just me or does it look like something is glowing up there?” Everybody then looked up and realized that there was indeed a silver glow emanating from the top of the tower.

“What IS that?” Ruby said as the glow seemed to get a little bit fainter.

“I’m not sure, but I’m going to check it out.” Natalie said.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Blake asked. “I mean, anything could be up there.”

“Well, if it’s the Maidens, then by freeing them we put a huge monkey wrench in their plans, right? Besides, we can get up there super quickly. Miles, you can send me up using Flight Protocol, then Ruby, then Blake and then yourself.”

“Are you up for that much stress Miles?” Blake asked.

“This is nothing compared to a few days ago. I trust Natalie’s judgment here. Let’s roll.” Suddenly, a large horde of Grimm started pouring in from the sides towards where they were standing.

“Hurry!” Ruby said as she started blasting the enemies. “Get Natls up there and then send me up!”

“On it!” As he said this, Miles sent Natalie flying up the side of Beacon tower towards the top.  
  


Lord Mortem looked over the edge and saw a small group of students running towards the base. He angrily turned around and walked over to the computer.

“Computer, somehow we are running out of time. How much longer do we have?”

“TWO MINUTES MY LORD.”

“I haven’t fought with my own Aura in years. This could be tricky.”  
  


As Jacob and Peter continued to clash, it seemed clear that Peter wasn’t even really trying to attack Jacob, but simply parry his attacks.

“Why won’t you attack father?! You had no problems with it before!” Still saying nothing, Peter spun around, hit Jacob on the back of his head with the hilt of his sword. As Jacob fell to the ground, he realized that his father had hit a specific nerve to keep him from moving for a solid minute. He struggled to fight the effects of the attack, but to no avail. He watched as Peter picked up his sword, and examined it carefully.

“This sword… I remember it. I gave it to you for your birthday.”

“Yeah. You gave me this whole spiel about how its been passed down through our family for generations! And that only a true Strohl can wield it. You don’t even have any honor left to lift that or any sword!” Peter looked at his son, and then looked out to the battlefield.

“People fight for what they believe is right no matter the consequences. I truly believed that the ideals of the Order were best for this world and that I was the one most suited to lead it. I was prepared to give up my own life, but I didn’t realize what else it would cost me. I don’t have any honor now, you are right. But maybe with this final act, I can at least be with your mother in whatever afterlife awaits me.” As he said this, Peter got down on his knees, took Jacob’s sword, placed it on his abdomen, and performed Seppuku.

“FATHER!” Jacob yelled as he watched his father fall to the ground after performing the action. Feeling finally returned to Jacob’s body, and he jumped up and ran over to the body of his father. As he held him in his arms, he suddenly felt a wash of emotions flowing over him. He didn’t know what to think, or how to act. He just simply sat there with his fathers body getting colder and colder.  
  


Ty beheaded another Nevermore as he realized that Junior and his forces were getting pushed back. As he tried to launch a few projectiles to thin out the enemy, he realized that Team CFVY and their squad was getting pushed back as well. Weiss ran up past Ty and stabbed a Boarbatusk in the head before it could attack Ty.

“This isn’t going well.” Weiss said as she launched a barrage of ice attacks straight ahead.

“We aren’t dead yet.” Ty said as he impaled three different small Grimm.

“Maybe not yet, but the thing is our team pockets are starting to fall apart! We won’t last if we keep fighting like this!”

“What do you suggest then?”

“Go get your teammates and whoever else you can find! I’ll do the same. Meet back at the main airship once we’ve collected everybody.”

“Good luck.”

“I don’t think we’re the ones who need it.”  
  


Lord Hibernis picked up Christy by the neck. She was completely drained of Aura, her right arm was broken, and she was coughing up blood. He turned her around so that she could see the battlefield.

“You see? This is what happens when fools like you try to get in the way of change. You fear what you don’t understand, and try to destroy it.”

“Destroying…. the coliseum…didn’t help your case…” This clearly angered Lord Hibernis, as he immediately unleashed a punch that almost instantaneously shattered her spine. The sound was so loud that one could have sworn that the battlefield itself fell silent for a second. The pain was so much that Christy didn’t even get a chance to scream. She just instantaneously blacked out and fell to the ground like a broken doll.

“Pathetic. Those who don’t understand how the world works should just fade.” As he raised his foot up to crush her head, he was suddenly knocked off his feet by a powerful and critical strike from Evan’s spear. Before Lord Hibernis even got a chance to recover from the attack, Evan was already on top of him, pummeling away with his gauntlet.

“I WON’T LET YOU HURT HER!” As he said this, Lord Hibernis was starting to lose consciousness. Acting purely on instinct, he used some of the nearby debris as rock projectiles to distract Evan, while he summoned a larger slab of rock in order to float himself away. Evan was about to pursue Lord Hibernis but decided to turn and try and help Christy any way he could. As he looked over her body, he viciously tried to figure out what he could fix to keep her alive, but he was completely lost. He didn’t even notice Weiss pop up right next to the two of them. She was about to say something else until she noticed Christy and her condition.

“What happened to her?!” Weiss asked as she almost dropped her sword.

“There’s no time!” Evan yelled as he picked up Christy. “We need to go! Now!”  
  


Lord Mortem paced back and forth as the computer finished mixing the different Aura’s together into a single canister. He checked the time on the computer console and it said there was only twenty seconds left. He started making sure all the wires and pipes were in alignment, when he heard a thud right behind him. He turned around and saw Natalie standing right before him, about to launch herself towards the equipment. As she pulled the trigger to launch herself forward, Lord Mortem leapt in front of her path and blocked the attack with his buster sword. Without saying a word, Lord Mortem swiftly started going on the offensive, catching Natalie off guard for a second. But as she gained her footing, it seemed like that the two of them were on an even playing field. They both traded blows, neither one truly gaining the upper hand. But all of a sudden, Natalie managed to slip past Lord Mortem and started making a beeline for the equipment set up in the center of the tower. Before Lord Mortem could catch her, she had sliced two of the containment pods in half and managed to take a few wires with her as well. As soon as she finished her attack, she planted her feet and got ready for another pass. But in a split second, Lord Mortem was right in front of Natalie, and had her in a chokehold she couldn’t escape form.

“Why is it always children who try to get in my way? I've had it with children just waltzing in and trying to destroy everything I've built!” As he said this, he began draining Natalie’s Aura. Natalie tried to fight back, but she felt not just her strength, but also her entire being fading away with each passing second. After only half a minute, her Aura was completely gone, her body was completely shriveled up like a mummy, and whatever life she had now existed as a single flame in the left hand of Lord Mortem, which he released and let fly away into the sky. As for the body, he simply just walked over to the edge of the tower, and let it fall to the ground.  
  


As Miles sliced up one last Ursa, he turned back to Ruby and Blake.

“All right Ruby. You ready to go?”

“NATALIE!!!!!”” Miles looked up and realized what Ruby was screaming at. Natalie, falling down at an alarming rate, not moving at all. Before Miles or Blake could react, Ruby had jumped up and caught the limp body of her best friend in mid air and then landed awkwardly, cushioning the fall herself. As they all gathered around her body, they realized what had happened, and what was painfully staring them in the face. Ruby was holding onto Natalie’s body, trying to convince herself that this wasn’t happening. Blake started crying uncontrollably, her hands clasped over her mouth. Miles simply fell to his knees, not sure how to respond, his body having completely shut down, save for the few tears that rolled down his face.  
  


Lord Mortem surveyed the damage and re-wired what he could to one of the few remaining working pods.

“Computer, you had better give me something useful or I swear I’m going to blow you into a million pieces.”

“SCANS INDICATE THAT THE PROGRAM WILL STILL RUN WITH NO PROBLEMS TO THE SYSTEM OR THE USER.”

“Good. Start it up.” As he said this, Lord Mortem took the single container of Aura that glowed a deep silver and hooked it up to the machine. He then proceeded to seal himself in one of the pods and pushed a button that caused all the Aura to begin flowing into his pod, which he then began to absorb. As the last of Aura was absorbed into his being, he then almost seemed to explode into a giant flash of silver, sending a shockwave bright enough to light the night sky across a large distance. When the dust settled, Lord Mortem punched the door to his pod right off the hinges, and stepped out. His eyes glowed the same bright yellow they always had. Then, he slowly closed his eyes, and opened them again, revealing his eyes now glowed the same deep silver that the Aura container glowed a few minutes ago.


	35. Episode 3: Chapter 7: Fallout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 7 of Episode 3 of Order of Seasons

Brooklyn could hardly comprehend what was happening. Her entire body was limp as Ty carried her towards the airship docks. She noticed that Jacob was in his other arm, Evan was carrying Christy, Nora was carrying Nathan, Yatsuhashi was carrying Yang, and Blake was pulling Ruby away from the battle.

“We can’t just leave her there!” Ruby yelled with tears in her eyes.

“We don’t have a choice Ruby! We’ll mourn her later!” Brooklyn tried to look back and see if she could find Natalie, but she didn’t see her anywhere. She did however notice a single man floating above the ground, summoning lightning and fire at a mere snap of his fingers. He captured the remaining members of Team JNPR in an ice prison, sent the entirety of Junior’s army flying with just a flick of his wrist, and with a simple punch at thin air, he launched boulders towards several airships, including the warship that belonged to the Schnee company. Everything was falling apart. Everybody who wasn’t captured or killed ran for the remaining airships. As they took off, Brooklyn and Jacob were strapped into a seat by Ty, others with more severe injuries were placed on emergency medical tables in the back of the airship. As they took off, Brooklyn could see off in the distance another airship starting to take off, but being struck down by a bolt of lightning. Unable to comprehend much more, she passed out yet again.  
  
  


Lord Mortem watched the airship crash to the ground in flames then looked on as the other airship flew off into the distance. He raised his arm up to launch another attack, this time with the intent to destroy completely and totally.

“You lied to us Mortem.” Lord Mortem powered down and turned to see Lord Fulgur standing right behind him with the rest of the High Council. “You stole all the power for yourself. You betrayed us!”

“You should be thankful to those kids for interrupting Lord Fulgur. You all would be dead otherwise!”

“What?” Lord Mortem held up his hand, and then one of the remaining containment pods came flying towards him from the top of the tower. He then grabbed a canister that was on the back of the pod and crushed it, releasing a poisonous gas. Everybody took a step back in fear when they saw this, and Lord Mortem dispersed the gas with a flick of his finger.

“I never intended to give you fools any of this power. You would have just been more vessels to the heritage of the complete whole entity! Besides, vessels can die. Not even Ozpin and Salem, the last immortals in this world, were immune to this. But their creator, now he was truly powerful.”

“Creator?” Adam asked. “What creator? How did you learn about all of this?”

“There is always truth in legends Lord Taurus. Remember that. The Order of the Four Seasons was founded on the ideology of harnessing the power of the Maidens to control the world. But in the deepest archives of the order, there exists a log of Maidens who have lived and died. There, I discovered that there was always a single person keeping a log of who lived for how long as a certain Maiden. That person was Ozpin, and even centuries before the middle entries of the books, his sister Salem. However, I only learned of their creator by accident, and the foolish lack of foresight by Ozpin. He left in this book a journal, in which he mentioned his father. I put the pieces together and realized what I could become if I brought all this power back together as a single vessel.”

“And what power is that my lord?” Lord Hibernis asked.

“You haven’t realized it yet? I am the new wizard of this world!”

“And that means?” Lord Aeris said with a confused look.

“I am now the most powerful being in existence! I can feel the power surging! I can create or destroy life in an instant, I can control all the elements, I control light and shadow, I am truly a god!”

“So what does that mean for us then?” Lord Fulgur said, clearly starting to get agitated.

“You will continue to serve me by making this world run smoothly. Four of you will rule over one of the four kingdoms, and then the other two will serve as the grand general of my armies, and all of you will report back to me, the true absolute superior.”

“After you lied to all of us? Why should we trust you! And if Ozpin and Salem were vulnerable despite being immortal, I bet you are able to be defeated just like the rest!” With that said, Lord Fulgur launched a barrage of lighting bolts at Lord Mortem, and then rushed forward looking to attack Lord Mortem head on. But as he swung down his bow, he noticed that all the lightning bolts he had fired were suddenly now in the form of a blade. Lord Mortem had laterally taken lightning and made it a weapon beyond nature.

“It’s a shame Lord Fulgur. I had hoped you would have been the master of my new armada.” Lord Mortem then pulled back the lightning blade, and as he swung it down, he morphed it into pure darkness, and sliced Lord Fulgur right in half. As the body fell to the ground, Lord Mortem let the blade dissipate into thin air. “Anybody else find themselves invincible?” Not even a tenth of a second passed after he said this before the remaining members of the High Council fell to one knee.

“My loyalties have always lied with you Lord mortem. That has not wavered for an instant.” Lord Hibernis said.

“I have to admit, being second to a god sound pretty fun.” Lord Aeris said. “My loyalties lie with you.”

“I will never fall away my lord.” Lord Memoriare said. “I stand with you.”

“The White Fang owes its growth to the goodwill of the Order. I stand with you Lord Mortem.” Adam said.

“You granted me the title of lord at the drop of a hat.” Leo said. “You trusted me with so many things despite me being the newest among our number. I stand with you.”

“Good.” Lord Mortem said as he drew his buster sword. “First business, I will go and conquer the remaining pieces of Atlas myself. In the meantime, all but Lord Hibernis are to gather the world leaders and bring them to Vytal. You have four days. Meanwhile, Lord Hibernis, I hereby dub thee Lord Grand Admiral of the entire army of the Order of the Four Seasons. Your task is to first take all these prisoners and place them in the hold of the command ship. Then, you will gather our best and most powerful ships. We won’t truly need them, but this will be nothing more than a show of power. My powers alone won’t be enough to sway the world leaders. That is why we need this show of force. Understood?” Everybody stood up and nodded their heads. “Good. Now if you will excuse me, I have a kingdom to topple.” With that said, Lord Mortem lifted up into the sky and flew off in the direction of Atlas.  
  
  


As the airship continued to fly, it was clear nobody knew what they needed to do.

“Where can we go?” Nora yelled from the cockpit. “It looks like some enemy airships have landed in Patch! We can’t go back there!”

“What about Atlas?” Evan asked. “Their medical equipment is what we need most right now!”

“Actually, I’m not sure there is any safe heaven for us anywhere in Remnant right now.” Weiss said with tears in her eyes. “My father just texted me, he’s breaking contact so that we don’t get caught after Atlas falls.”

“Atlas has been defeated?” Blake said completely shocked. Nobody else knew what to say as silence filled the airship. Then Miles walked over to Nora in the cockpit.

“Take us to the Forest of Forever Fall. It’s close enough to civilization, but far enough away that the enemy won’t look for us there.” Not even objecting, Nora took the airship and started flying for the forest. As they started to fly over the treeline, Nora put the airship in landing protocol in the middle of the forest.

“Is right here okay Miles?”

“Don’t set the airship down. Engage the autopilot to crash into the mountains once we jump out.”

“Jump out?” Blake asked. “Miles, I know you’re healed, but do you really think you can get everybody down safely?”

“Everybody is capable of jumping down from this height and surviving. I’ll just help lower the injured. Now let’s move people!” With that said, everybody who could jumped down to the forest below, then Miles followed in suit helping lower the injured and sick. As he continued to descend, everybody already on the ground started grabbing and helping the injured in any way they could. Evan and Weiss helped get Christy to a comfortable position, Yatsuhashi and Nora helped get Nathan and Yang in a safe location, and Ty set Brooklyn and Jacob down before helping to attend to the rest of the injured. As soon as everybody was attended to, Miles landed as well and watched as the airship flew off towards the mountain range and crashed.  
  
  


Nathan woke up with a throbbing pain in his chest. As he slowly sat up, he noticed his friends all moving about and helping everybody. He took a quick look around to figure out his surroundings, and then noticed that Yang was lying there next to him. As he started to remember what happened, he quickly ran over and started inspecting her injury. He started to cry a little bit.

“Hey big guy.” Nathan looked down and realized that Yang was awake. As soon as he saw her smile however, he turned his face away. “What’s wrong? Is my makeup smeared?” Yang smirked, but still Nathan said nothing and didn’t look at her. “Nathan, what’s wrong?”

“How can you be so calm?!” Nathan yelled. “Adam attacked and hurt you! You’re lucky he didn’t kill you!”

“His mistake. Now we can bounce back and take him down together!”

“STOP IT!” Nathan yelled, which startled Yang. She was about to try and tell him to perk up, but stopped short when she noticed that he was crying uncontrollably.

“Nathan….”

“This is the second time this has happened! First I lost my family to Adam all those years ago, and I almost lost you today! I don’t want to lose anybody else!”

They both fell silent for a moment, then Yang slowly sat up and hugged Nathan.

“This is what I signed up for. And yeah, this stinks, but at least I’ve got you here with me.” Nathan didn’t how to respond at first, but then returned her hug.

“Thanks Yang.”

“We’ll get through this together Nathan.”  
  
  


Evan continued to sit next to Christy as Weiss tried to figure out what exactly she needed to do in order to help keep her alive.

“I don’t know what to do! She isn’t healing herself like she normally should!” Evan yelled.

“She doesn’t have any aura!” Weiss responded. “And without any tech, I have no idea how to help her!”

“Wait, I think I remember Pyrrha teaching me something that could help!” Evan then quickly ran over and placed his hand on Christy’s forehead. “For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul. And by my shoulder, protect thee.” As he said this, his own Aura flowed down like a river into Christy’s body, and she began to glow a little bit. Evan started to become short of breath since he had to sacrifice a lot of Aura.

“So what happens now?” Weiss asked. Evan simply looked over at Christy and noticed that the healing field had begun to envelop her body.

“Now I wait. You go help the others.”

“Okay. Let me know when she wakes up.” As Weiss made her way to the rest of the injured, Evan just continued to sit there, waiting for her to wake up.  
  
  


As Brooklyn slowly regained consciousness, she noticed that Jacob was lying nearby completely zoned out. He was curled up in a fetal position. Brooklyn was about to ask what was wrong until she remembered what had happened to her as well. She stood up and walked over to where everybody else was and saw Ty helping collect firewood for the group.

“Brooklyn! You’re awake! How do you feel?” Brooklyn didn’t respond. Ty handed his firewood off to Yatsuhashi, grabbed a few large wood stumps and placed them on the ground as stools. “What happened back there?” Brooklyn hesitated for a moment, then sat down on the other stool.

“I was fighting the assassin. You know, the one that attacked us back at the gorge a few days ago? Well, she kept giving me all these cryptic messages when we were imprisoned, and I didn’t think anything of them. But then, when we were fighting back in Beacon, I had just ran her through with my blade, some random blue orb came out of the sky and flew into me, and then I suddenly remembered everything.”

“Everything about what?”

“About who she was. I remembered her face, I remembered all we did together, I remembered who she was.”

“Who was she?”

“Her name was Angela McPhearson, and she was my mother.” The two of them sat in silence. Ty finally spoke up.

“So why did she leave you in the first place?”

“Well, according to this memory that I got back, it’s because she was so neck deep in the Order that she had no choice if she wanted to protect me and the rest of my family. To make sure that we would never try and rescue her from that organization, they had one of their high ranking officials come in and wipe out our memories of her and substitute them with alternate memories.”

“So, now that you remember everything, what do you feel like doing?”

“I’m not sure. I mean, I’ll still fight the Order if it means saving the world, but with this new bit of knowledge, I guess now I have a personal vendetta.”

“True enough.” Ty got up and picked up his stool and headed back towards the main camp.

“Do you not have anything else to say?”

“Nah. I think you have a clear grasp on what you need to accomplish. You had a rough experience, but you know how to handle it. If anybody needs help it’s Jacob. I can’t get a word in with that guy. Maybe you could help him?” As Ty walked off, Brooklyn looked back over at where Jacob was sitting, he still hadn’t moved an inch.  
  
  


The first thing that Christy felt when she woke up was a sharp pain in her back. Then all the other pains in her body were dialed up to eleven. She slowly got up, and noticed Evan sitting off to the side, having fallen asleep. She tried to stand up straight, but the pain was too much, she couldn’t help but make a small cry in pain. Despite it not being that loud, it was apparently loud enough to wake Evan up. The instant he saw Christy awake, he smiled with relief, but that turned to worry the instant he realized she was trying to walk.

“Christy, what are you doing? You still need to rest!”

“I’m fine!” Christy said clearly trying to fight back against the pain. “The others need my help! I can heal them!”

“You can hardly move!” Evan said jumping up and blocking her path. “How do you think you can help them?!”

“Look, I’ll heal in time! But you guys need more help than I do!” Christy tried to take another step but was stopped when Evan wrapped her in a bear hug.

“You help so many people Christy. And you don’t hesitate for a second to try and help others who rely on you. That’s one of the many things I love about you. But think about yourself for a second please? People may rely on your abilities, but I don’t rely on your abilities. I rely on you. I need you.” As he said this, he hugged her even tighter. “I can’t imagine my life without you.” Christy smiled and started crying as soon as Evan finished.

“Hon that’s great, but the thing is, I kind of hurt all over and you hugging me isn’t helping.” Evan quickly jumped back, afraid he had done something wrong.

“I’m so sorry!”

“It’s fine.” Christy said wiping away a tear. “You’re right. We can all heal in time. I’ll just focus on getting better so I can be at my best when we rally together for another round!”

“Always ready to go aren’t you?” 

“Eh, part of my charm.” They both giggled, and then gave each other a quick kiss.  
  
  


Brooklyn sat down next to Jacob, and patted him on the shoulder. He didn’t respond. He just continued to sit there.

“And here I thought I was the shallow one.” Brooklyn said tilting her head up to the sky. “Seriously, what’s wrong? You aren’t usually like this.” Jacob looked over at Brooklyn, then up to the sky.

“I hated him. I hated my father. He always criticized me, he never cared about my hopes and dreams, he never cared about my goals, and he never cared about my feelings. The only thing I ever learned from him is how to fight. And when I had enough, I rebelled. I wanted to stay at a single school instead of going to all four like he wanted me to, I wanted to do what I wanted to do. And as a result, he dragged me into his secret life, forced me to join, lied to me about the death of my friends, and when I tried to run off again, it got my mother killed. I thought I would feel relieved to see him dead. I thought I would be happy to be rid of him. But I’m not. I’m sad. I’m torn! I hated him! I don’t get it! Brooklyn, why do I care so much about him?” Brooklyn sighed, sat down next to Jacob and gave him a hug.

“Because you are a good son.” Jacob thought about this for a second, then let the tears flow as he returned Brooklyn’s hug. Afterwards, the two of them just sat there, reflecting on their families.  
  
  


Miles looked down on the camp from a nearby cliff. He had volunteered to take first watch.

“You doing okay?” Miles turned and saw Blake walking towards him.

“Yeah. About as good as I can be.”

“Does Nathan or anybody else who wasn’t there know about Natalie yet?”

“I’ll make a formal announcement tomorrow once everybody has had a chance to rest. But I asked Ty to tell Nathan directly for me tonight in my stead.”

“Why not tell him yourself?” Miles fell silent for a few seconds at this question.

“I don’t think I can face him.” Miles said as he sat down. “This is the second time that someone from his family has been killed because of my actions.”

“You couldn’t have known what was going to happen on that tower.”

“Maybe, but I probably shouldn’t have sent Natls up there alone! I should have gone up! At least if I died, nobody would miss me!” Blake then slapped him across the face.

“THAT’S NOT TRUE!” Miles was about to retort, but he was smothered by Blake giving him a big hug, tears streaming down her face. “I would.” Miles then finally let his emotions loose, and the two of them sat there for an hour just crying, missing their friend.  
  
  


As she tried to open her eyes, she had to squint, as there was a bright beam of light shining directly on her face. Quickly getting up, she took in her surroundings. It looked like an abandoned cathedral; the walls being decorated with stain glass windows. About fifteen of them had designs on them, but there were almost a hundred more that were blank. As she looked over the windows, she recognized them as key moments in her past. While she was surveying the rest of the room, a door at the far end opened up, a stranger stood there bathed in light.

“You’re early.” The voice said walking in. “I honestly didn’t expect you here for at least another 80 years or so Natls.” Natalie took a step back the instant she recognized the voice.

“Ember?”


	36. Episode 3: Chapter 8: Requiem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 8 of Episode 3 of Order of Seasons

Natalie wasn’t sure how to react. Her first reaction was that she fell down to her knees, then quickly got back up again and started running towards Ember, wanting to hug her.

“Whoa! Slow down there kid!” Ember said raising her hand and stopping Natalie dead in her tracks. And it wasn’t like she raised her hand and Natalie stopped on her own, it was as if she was holding Natalie back with the force or something of that nature. Ember then walked towards Natalie, and placed a bracelet on her left wrist. “Okay, now hug time.” The two of them embraced, and Natalie was crying uncontrollably. After a few minutes of this, they finally separated; Natalie dried her tears, and got a good look around the cathedral.

“So what is this place? It looks like a giant church dedicated to my life or something like that.”

“Actually, that’s pretty much what this place is. A giant final memorial to your life told entirely by stain glass windows.”

“Wait, so that means…..”

“Yeah. Technically, you died.” There was an awkward silence for a few seconds.

“So this is the afterlife? And there’s no way I can go back?”

“Hold your horses for a few minutes champ. I did say you “technically” died, didn’t I?”

“So you’re saying I can go back if I really want to?”

“Yes, but I’m required by the laws of the afterlife to give you the tour and then let you make the final choice.”

“Okay. I guess that makes sense.”

“All right then. Follow me.”  


Natalie had to take a second to let her eyes adjust to the bright light, but once everything came into focus, she recognized that they were standing in the middle of Aequo. It was exactly as she remembered it. The row of houses, the way the streets and sidewalks were paved, everything was as it was back before it was all burned down. As the two of them continued to walk, Natalie felt like something was off.

“Where is everybody?”

“Well, as of right now, they are going about their daily lives here in the afterlife. Over there is the old Vevian restaurant, popping with business as usual, over there’s the town square and down that way is the park where a lot of your old friends are playing right now!”

“Okay, but why can’t I see any of that?”

“It’s part of the deal. If you ever come in contact with the dead while here, it doesn’t matter if your body back in the real world has any form of spark left in it, you would be forever bound to this world. That’s why I stopped you from hugging me for a split second. If you had touched me before I put on that bracelet, you would have remained dead forever. But in turn, until you make your choice, you can’t see anybody around here unless you decide to stay for good.”

“Well that’s annoying. Shouldn’t I get the full experience if I want to make a decision about whether I stay here or go back?”

“Normally, yes. But the thing is, there are a few people who got here a few days ago who want to speak to you directly.”

“Who?”

“You already know one of them.”  


“It’s your move Ozpin.”

“I’m well aware Salem.” As he picked up the piece, he then turned his attention to the large gap in reality that was only twenty yards away from where they were sitting. Ozpin sighed with an annoyed tone. “He’s using the power again.” With a flick of his wrist, he sent a ray of energy that caused the crack to decrease in magnitude a little bit. As he turned back to the game, he noticed Salem giving him a look of contempt.

“Why do you waste what energy you have left Ozpin? Just let the power run wild! Then maybe the world can reset and become better than before!”

“You know I won’t condemn the people of the living world to extinction.”

“You owe nothing to them! I swear, you are so delusional! The humans came for the power that Father possessed just like I said they would, they kill you and me for it, and you still want to protect them! Why?! Maybe let this fool tear reality to shreds! Then maybe you and I can get things back to the way they were supposed to be!”

“We’re dead Salem. Not much we can do if reality does tear itself asunder. Besides, the fact that the tear can be found in this realm too means that if it breaks, it won’t just be the living world that suffers, but this world as well.”

“You’re so pretentious Ozpin.”

“Now you are just simply throwing around words Salem. I don’t think pretentious pertains to our discussion.”

“You get what I mean!”

“Usually you are far more composed. What’s bothering you Salem?”

“We’re dead! That doesn’t bother you?!”

“Honestly, I find it far more peaceful than father described it to us all those years ago.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot he had that expedition to this realm before we were born. But that isn’t the point! We have been killed by humans! The same humans I wanted to destroy all those years ago! Why do you still stand with them?! Why is it that you care about them more than me?!”

“I think our guest here can possibly shed some light on that reason.” Looking over towards some of the collection of spirit villages, Salem noticed an older Faunus leading a young girl dressed in blue towards their table.

“Ozpin?”

“Hello Natalie. I’m sorry we have to meet again in such strange circumstances.”

“Who is this?” Natalie asked pointing at Salem.

“This is my sister, Salem.”

“YOU HAVE A SISTER?!”

“Yes. Now before you just completely bombard us with questions, take a seat and I will be more than happy to explain everything to you.” With a flick of his wrist, Ozpin created two chairs and drinks out of pure light for Natalie and Ember. They sat down, and Ozpin began explaining everything.  


“So you sealed her away because she wanted to destroy the human race and if she did that would mean absolute extinction?”

“That’s the short version of it, yes.”

“Yeesh. When I got in trouble my mom would send me flying into the wall with one of her weapons. I got off easy by comparison!”

“Well, you didn’t try to destroy the world.”

“True enough. So how do you know Ember Professor Ozpin?”

“When you live as long as I have, you learn to make good friends from almost every walk of life.”

“Professor Ozpin was one of the many secret donors to the Violet Troupe back in the day” Ember said taking a drink. “He would even help supply transportation and sometimes watch our performances whenever we were in town! He and I would sometimes even discuss what could be done to help the Faunus rights movement in Vale since it was considered a hot spot for early White Fang protests.”

“Yes. Sad to say Ember, while we have taken strides, many Faunus still live in fear of the hatred that humans may have. One of my students wears a bow on her head in order to hide her true nature.”

“That’s a shame. What type is she?”

“She’s a cat Faunus named Blake Belladonna.”

“I remember Blake. I met her once when I tried to convince her family to help with our troupe. Sadly, her parents declined my invitation. How is Blake doing?”

“She’s doing great!” Natalie said interrupting. “She’s also totally dating my teammate, but neither of them will admit it!” She laughed as Ember smiled.

“So what type of Faunus is he? Another cat? Maybe a monkey?”

“Actually, he’s a human.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. His name is Miles. And while he may be a bit of a crazy nut that’s kind of out of touch with the world, he’s still a good guy! He really does care about Blake, I know that much!”

“I see. And what about you and Nathan? You find somebody like that?”

“Yeah actually! Nathan found a girl who was practically made for him, and even though we aren't officially dating yet, I met a guy who actually enjoys some of the stuff I do!” Salem then slammed her fist on the table and stood up.

“Enough!" Salem said slamming her fist on the table.  "What is the purpose of this? Inviting two old dead associates of yours for what purpose Ozpin? Just to reminisce about old times? To try and make me see what humans can do or become?”

“Geez, who stuffed an Ursa down your pants?” Salem was about to tell Natalie off for saying that, but then stopped short taking a closer look at her. She then sat back down, took a drink, then asked,

“Tell me child, why do you exist?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you feel the need to keep going? Or rather why did you? Why just live your life if you knew it was only going to lead to pain?”

“Well, it wasn’t all bad. I mean, I got to know my family, I got to make some great friends who helped me get out of a very rough place, I even managed to find somebody I cared about back there! And plus, I can still go back if I want to! Or that’s at least what Ember told me.”

“You can go back.” Ozpin said. “That much is true. But it is your choice.”

“You make it sound like I don’t want to go back. My friends need me!” The group fell silent for a few minutes and then Ozpin stood up.

“I had a feeling you would say that. And with that knowledge, I propose a way for you to go back and defeat this new threat.”

“You mean the guy who killed me? When I fought him, he didn’t seem that tough. Just had the aura of any other normal guy.”

“That was before he absorbed the power of our father, the Wizard.”

“He can do that?”

“He did do it, but the power is not stable. It’s kind of like a teacup. Say you crack it, shatter it into several small pieces. You try to put it back together, but it never is perfect. You can see the cracks, and if you drop it again, it will break a lot easier that time around. It might not even hold together at all. That is what is happening with the rift you see before you.”

“Yeah, I had been meaning to ask about that. What exactly is it?”

“It is a tear in reality. Before Salem and I were born, our father was the most powerful being in the universe. You could say that he created it for the lack of a better term. But his power became fragmented and became me and my sister, and then later the Four Maidens. So by taking the aura of all of the different pieces and cramming them back together to create the power of the Wizard once again, it has made the universe unstable. That tear over there is what has been created as a response to the forced re-creation of the Wizard.”

“So what does that mean? Kill him and then everything gets better?”

“Not that easy. One of the pieces of being the Wizard is absolute immortality. You could get shot at by a million guns and all it would feel like is a gentle summer breeze. Only individual vessels can be truly killed. So you need to first reduce his aura to a single entity and then kill him.”

“How is that possible?”

“That rift over there is the key.” Ozpin said as he stood up walking towards the rift. “Given my powers, I can look into the world of the living and see what is happening. So once you find your friends and fight him again, I will enter the rift and break all the pieces apart.”

“And that means?” Ember asked.

“In short, I will sacrifice my existence to break apart the union of aura so that you can kill him and restore a sense of balance to the world.”

“So, you die again? Where do you go after that? The after-afterlife?”

“I don’t know. But what matters is stopping the enemy and saving humanity. So all you have to do is fight him, wear him down a bit, and I’ll do the rest from this end.”

“All right then.” Natalie then got up and gave Ozpin a hug. “I’ll get our group ready for that.” Letting him go, she turned to Ember, and the two of them headed back towards the cathedral where Natalie woke up. As they left, Salem walked over to Natalie and tapped her on the shoulder.

“Can I help you?”

“I just have one last question child. Why do you still side with the people who killed your family? All those you care about?”

“Uh….I don’t side with them.”

“But humans killed them!”

“I’m a human too. Just because something bad happens doesn’t exclusively mean it’s because of a certain species. It depends on the individual people who decide whether or not to do bad things.”

“You really think it’s that simple?”

“I mean, each person is different, so blaming a large group of people for something that most of them didn’t do seems kind of stupid, doesn’t it?” Salem just simply stood there and watched as Natalie walked away after that response. Ozpin walked over to her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

“She looks just like Spring.” Salem said, completely surprised.

“Her best friend is very similar as well.” Ozpin said. “That’s part of the reason why I picked them to fight you and whatever you had planned. I had hoped that once you launched your big attack, they would remind you of who you used to be and you would return to the same person I knew all those years ago.”

“Things change Ozpin. Just like people. I was no different.”

“We can still fix things. Salem, when this is all over and you return to the mortal world, I want you to see the school I started, to witness what humanity can do when brought together in the name of good.”

“You started a school?”

“I started it to mainly counter the army that you were raising in the dark realm. But I also started it as a means of trying to establish a code of honor for those who needed it most. Defenders of the world if you will.”

“You still haven’t lost your corniness I see.”

“It keeps things light.”

“You’re such a dork.”  


As they walked back into the cathedral, Natalie noticed that the bracelet she was wearing had fallen off and disappeared into light particles as it hit the ground. Ember then walked in with her and closed the door.

“You sure you want to head back?”

“My friends need me. If I can still help them, I think I should. But why was I the only one given this choice? Why not others?”

“Others have been given the choice. Some of them have seen far more than you have and are tired of the living world. Some of them don’t have anything to go back to. You on the other hand, have a lot of life ahead of you and have friends who need you now more than ever.”

“Why now more than ever?”

“Well you died, so that’s not going to help them emotionally. Plus, you are the team leader, right?”

“Well yeah, I guess that plays a role.”

“You’ve got a long ways to go before you should stay here for good. I mean, most of these windows haven’t been filled yet! I look forward to seeing what the final product looks like!”

“So, is this goodbye for the time being?”

“You knew that to be true since you chose to go back.”

“Fair enough.” Natalie was about to give Ember one last hug, but then remembered her warning about staying forever, so she refrained from that. “All right. How do I get out of here?”

“Who knows? I never had a chance to try.” As soon as she said this, Natalie was enveloped in a beam of light and disappeared from the cathedral altogether.

“Oh, and tell your brother I said hi!”  


Natalie shot awake and the first thing she felt was an annoying ache in her entire body. Like all of her energy had been completely drained away. She then collected herself, got up and looked around. All she could see was nothing but dead and injured bodies. Both from her side and the enemies. She noticed that her weapon wasn’t anywhere nearby, so she started circling the tower trying to find it. As she turned a corner, she noticed the weapon lying next to the limp body of Beanie. Not sure if he was alive or dead, she walked over to him and checked for a pulse. For a split second, it seemed like he didn’t have one until she felt his aura kick in and start healing him. He then woke up and started coughing up a little blood.

“Hey! Don’t move so much! I’ll get you out of here!” Natalie then picked him up and started carrying him towards the docks, hoping to find any form of transport out of Beacon. But as they reached the edge of the docks, an airship started flying overhead and aimed a spotlight right at the two of them. Unable to tell who it was, Natalie took out her weapon and prepared for the worst.

“I’m not going to die again anytime soon.”  


Blake and Weiss finished putting out the fire from last night while Miles helped Evan with preparing the last of the supplies.

“You ready to go Miles?” Nathan asked walking forward.

“We have to be. It’s been almost two days since the big battle; we need supplies for the injured. Plus, it seems as if most of the Order has pulled out of the city, so now might be the safest time to get what we need.”

“Lead the way then.” Ruby said as she placed Crescent Rose in her holster. But before anything else happened, an airship appeared and began landing right next to their camp. Miles and Nathan stepped forward with weapons at the ready, not sure who was going to walk out the door. Then, the ramp door opened, and there was a bright light, they couldn’t tell who it was.

“WHO ARE YOU?!” Miles yelled as he tried to adjust his eyes.

“Someone you apparently need in order to get things done around here.” As the light dimmed, everybody in the general area looked up and recognized Natalie as she walked down the ramp heading towards the group. “Hey guys. I’m back.”


	37. Episode 3: Chapter 9: Cavalry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 9 of Episode 3 of Order of Seasons

Everybody just simply stood there agape at what they were seeing. Natalie Grover, left for dead at the base of Beacon tower, now standing there looking at them like they were all crazy.

“Guys, I said I’m back. You gonna pick your jaws up off the ground anytime soon?” Before anybody else had a chance to react, Nathan had run up and had started poking Natalie. “Um….bro?  What are you doing?” After a few seconds of this, Nathan then looked Natalie straight in the face with tears in his eyes.

“I’m so glad I’m not dreaming,” he said as he gave Natalie a huge bear hug. Natalie returned the hug but then was knocked flat on her back by everybody else rushing forward to give her a big hug as well. It took a minute for everybody to get off her and help her back to her feet. After which, Ruby ran up and gave her a huge hug as well. She returned the hug and noticed Miles standing off to the side with clear signs of the fact that he was crying. She walked over to him and punched him the shoulder jokingly.

“Can’t get rid of me that easy I guess.” She said with a grin on her face. Miles didn’t say anything but just simply threw his arms around her and cried uncontrollably.

“Don’t scare us like that again.” Natalie was about to make another joke, but then decided against it and simply returned the hug. After the quick little reunion, a small number of medics and soldiers from Atlas rushed out and dispersed into the camp, helping whomever they could.

“Natalie, what’s going on?” Miles asked as he watched several medics beginning to bring Christy aboard the airship.

“Well, I kind of woke up from being dead, then I was walking around and found Beanie pretty darn close to being dead, then all of a sudden, we were picked up and saved…”

“By me.” Everybody turned to see that walking down the ramp now was General Ironwood, the supreme commander of the Atlas military. “Well, to be more precise, our scouts who were on the lookout for any signs of life in the remains of your battle a few days ago. To be perfectly honest, we weren’t sure if we would find anybody ever since the Order’s supreme leader went out and completely dismantled any remaining public resistance on the face of Remnant. But that doesn’t matter. What does matter is the fact that we have managed to find people who can still fight. Or at least can fight once they are given proper treatment.”

“Wait, you’re planning on still fighting the Order?” Miles asked. “What’s the point? I mean, I could tell from the few seconds that we ran away from that one guy that they have a power that we can’t even begin to compete with! It’s uncanny! Not even the Maidens were this powerful!”

“I won’t deny that the supreme commander of the Order has gained some impressive powers, but the fact remains that we still have to try. Plus, your sister brought us some intel from the afterlife that may prove useful to us.”

“You brought back information from the afterlife?” Nathan asked completely confused. “How’d you pull that off?”

“Oh yeah! I almost forgot!” Natalie said with a big smile. “Ember says hi!” Nathan’s expression changed from confusion, to surprise, to happiness, and back to surprise again.

“Huh.”  
  


Lord Mortem lowered himself onto the island of Vytal right next to the large old capitol building. He walked inside the building and made his way to the central chamber. As he opened the doors, he saw that Lord Aeris was already inside. As soon as he entered the room, Aeris fell to one knee.

“Welcome Lord Mortem. I’ve been waiting patiently.”

“Rise Lord Aeris. What is the status of the world leaders?”

“All of them will be brought here as per your request in a few days. The current ruler of Mistral was not willing to comply at first, but I persuaded him.”

“Very good. What of the remaining pieces of resistance?”

“We have yet to locate General Ironwood and his small batch of Atlas soldiers, but Lord Hibernis assures me that the assets that we will not have here on location are using every resource necessary to find them.” Lord Mortem smiled, and walked to the center of the room.

“Did you know Lord Aeris, this is where the leaders of the world came together to try and ignite change? They decided that they had enough of the senseless violence and decided that they would create a system that existed in limbo. A limbo that ignored the fact that entire nations and ideals had been crushed during their mindless conflict. The creation of the Hunters Academies was nothing more than a shining monument to that limbo. Buried beneath the grand bravado of the students and teachers of the academies were the skeletons of all those who sacrificed everything only to be forgotten to time. The leaders of the world had the power to make real change, but refused to take the initiative. I will not tolerate any form of weakness in this new world. I will erase the limbo that the leaders created and replace it with reality. The reality that this world cannot function on just ignoring what is. You can only move forward and embrace the pain of reality.”

“So…did you like have a rough childhood or did your family have an ancestor who was lost in the war or….”

“My life has always been about order. Be it ours or otherwise. I will instill order upon the world. I will bring the four kingdoms as different as the seasons and make them one single entity.”

“It’s control you desire then?”

“Do you have an issue with my reasoning to bring about the greatest revolution this world has ever seen?”

“I just follow your commands until the day one of us dies, and at this rate, I think I’ll be dead long before you even get close to looking middle-aged. I was just curious since you just randomly started to monologue in the middle of this giant government building.”

“I guess that could come off as a bit strange. My apologies.”

“No worries.”  
  


The airship began taking off from the forest and heading towards the mountain ranges to avoid any form of detection.

“If all the team leaders could come with me and anybody else they feel that can help follow me to the command deck.” As soon as General Ironwood asked this, Natalie, Miles, Jacob, Ty, Ruby, Blake, and Nora followed General Ironwood to the top deck. Evan stayed behind to stay with Christy while the doctors helped get her what she needed to recover faster, Nathan stayed behind while the few Atlas technicians worked on a new cyborg arm for Yang, and everybody else either got a bite to eat in the cafeteria or decided to take a nap. As the airship got closer to the mountains, Nora started shivering a little bit.

“Couldn’t we hide somewhere a bit warmer please General?”

“We don’t have time for niceties. The Order has conquered the entire world overnight and their supreme leader, Zenoma Mortem, has ordered that the current world leaders meet at the government building where the World Hunters Accords were signed to end the Great War. If we didn’t have the cover of the mountains, we would be detectable by radar and noticeable even with our cloaking device working.”

“Ok, so what are we up against?” Miles asked as he walked over to a nearby holo-table. “When we fought against them a few days ago, they had White Fang soldiers as well as some of their own soldiers. Can we expect perhaps a more powerful fleet of soldiers guarding this event?”

“Yes, alongside that the Order has managed to take control of all our Atlesian Knights once again.”

“You have got to be kidding me!” Blake said as she took a seat in the captains chair. “I remember fighting those things a year ago, and they were tough back then! What chance do we have now that they have been upgraded?”

“Well, that is actually the first part of the plan we have been preparing.” General Ironwood then pulled up a holographic image of the government building on Vytal and zoomed in on the airships. “This event that Mortem is planning is supposed to scare the world leaders into submission, so he has brought some of his finest ships in to intimidate them. But that may be the first piece to his downfall. After the attack on Beacon a year ago, Ozpin and I along with several programmers developed a code installed in the very core of every war android under Atlas control. The Prime directive. A basic code that if activated, the androids are to fight and protect the interests of the four kingdoms. If it seems that different kingdoms are at war with each other, then a kill code is initiated so that nobody can use them for the wrong reasons ever.”

“So how do we activate this program?” Ruby asked.

“According to our intel, when Roman Torchwick captured one of my ships last year, he installed a program that gave him and Cinder control of the entire Atlesian force stationed in Vale. That should hold true for the airships of the Order. If we can get a small strike team into one of the airships, we can activate the directive as well as install a set of instructions for the knights to fight only when we give the command.”

“Why wouldn’t we have them just wreck havoc the instant we get them back on our side?” Ty asked. “Wouldn’t it make sense to just let them run lose and we can clean up whatever mess they made?”

“Not really. What we need is a tactical attack. If we let the knights run wild, they will be wiped out in an instant. But if we upload a command to wait for our signal, the enemy will rush forward with the knights on their side and then in a split second will be turned on and will be completely stuck.”

“What about the remaining troops?” Jacob asked. “Just because we take the androids back to our side won’t guarantee an easy cakewalk. The instant they realize that they are under attack, they’ll send down all their available troops on the other airships to take us down.”

“You have a suggestion?” General Ironwood asked.

“I say we have the stealth strike team also be an attack team. They install the directive into the system, then they take over the airship, and once they are given the signal, they can open fire on the other airships, and maybe even use the airship as a kamikaze missile on the other Order members.”

“Not a bad strategy. It could work.”

“One problem though” Blake said as she stood up and walked over to the table. “If we just rush in while all the world leaders are still inside, then Mortem could just hold them hostage and this will all be for nothing.”

“She’s right. Any ideas?”

“This fight isn’t just to defeat the Order.” Natalie said walking forward. “It’s about saving the world. I’ll spare you all the tiny details about why we need to defeat Mortem other than the fact that he’s evil and needs to be defeated. But the main thing is that the only way to defeat his requires help from the afterlife. All we have to do is just beat the tar out of him and weaken him to the point where we can destroy him. What we need is to get him isolated from his subordinates and fight him head on. The nice thing is, with the main attack, they should be too busy to do anything else. I suggest we have a team of six people dive into the main government building, two to fight Mortem, the rest to check the building and make sure there isn’t anybody else.”

“Did you somehow become a better strategist when you died?” Miles asked.

“I had my moments before then!” They both laughed, and then everybody joined in. A moment of levity in light of what they all knew was about to happen.  
  


Evan sat there as the doctor walked up to him removing his mask.

“Her aura should be kicking in right about now. It was already doing the job, but by manually healing and mending some of her injuries, she should be able to recover a lot faster now. You can go see her if you’d like.” Evan didn’t say anything in response. He just got up, walked into the room and saw Christy sitting there hooked up to several different machines.

“You doing okay there cutie?” Christy blushed and laughed at Evan’s comment.

“A bit cornier than usual, but yes. My back hurts a little bit, but other then that, I’m feeling a lot better than I was earlier.” Evan smiled, sat down next to her, and held her hand. They both just sat there in silence, just letting things move forward without fighting it.  
  


Nathan was looking out the window just lost in thoughts. He then felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see Yang holding a robot arm.

“Can I give you a hand Nathan?” Yang started cracking up as she waved the new arm around like it was a toy.

“Yang, the doctor said you shouldn’t take that thing off and use it so carelessly!”

“Oh come on. You’d do the exact same thing if you were in my shoes!” Yang then put her new arm back on and sat down next to him. “I was just trying to lighten the mood Nathan. No need to be so sullen about it,”

“How can you be so calm? You got your arm cut off! And you can still make jokes like this?”

“I keep telling you, I’ve got you here with me to help me through it. I’d do the same thing for you.”

“Thanks Yang.” They gave each other a quick kiss before looking out the window into the sky.  
  


Brooklyn walked into the cafeteria and saw Weiss eating at a table by herself. She grabbed a drink and sat down next to her.

“Hey Weiss?”

“Yeah?”

“What does family mean to you?” Weiss was a bit thrown off by the question.

“How do you mean?”

“Like, you are somebody who has had your family with you your entire life. What was that like?”

“Well, I don’t think I’m the person to ask about that. Everybody has different experiences with their families. I lived with my father, but he always was just pushing me to take over the family company. But I wanted to become a Huntress and help the world. We still have our differences, but I think that even after everything that has happened, he still loves me no matter what.”

“No matter what, huh?”

“Something significant about that?”

“Not really. Just gives me something to work with I guess. Thanks Weiss.”

“Hey, I’m not doing that much right now. Anytime.”  
  


As the sun began to rise, Lord Mortem stood atop the government building and watched as the small transport ship lowered itself to the ground. Lord Mortem smiled and began floating towards the world leaders.

“It’s time for the final great change in this world.”


	38. Episode 3: Chapter 10: Initial Strike

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 10 of Episode 3 of Order of Seasons

General Ironwood stood above the control panel on the command bridge, placing a com link in his ear and linking it to his scroll.

“All teams sound off.”

“Stealth squad standing by” Christy said with determination in her voice.

“Ground squad standing by” Ty said as the sound of his sword unsheathing could be heard through the coms.

“Air squad standing by” an Atlas airman said.

“Cannon squad standing by” another soldier said as the cannons moved into position.

“Strike team standing by” Natalie said as the wind from the cargo doors flew into the hold. General Ironwood took a deep breath then pushed a button and launched a small airship carrying the stealth team towards the large fleet of enemy airships.

“Good luck everybody,” he said as he watched them fly off. “We’re going to need it.”  
  


The airship glided along towards the large fleet, trying desperately to not look out of place. General Ironwood had taken a deactivated Atlesian Knight and programed it according to some codes that Christy managed to capture back at the Order base. It was programed to deliver cargo to one of the airships and then leave; all the while the steal team would sneak off and begin their mission. The problem was, they had no idea which airship the knight was taking them to. As they flew into the main collection of airships, they began descending towards what looked like the flagship of the enemy armada. There wasn’t any time for quiet whispers of annoyance, Christy and her team simply got ready in the loading dock and waited for the airship to land.  
  


As the world leaders walked in to the center room, they saw that they were alone in there except for Lord Mortem standing right in the middle. They all took their seats, and Lord Aeris and Adam lead the guards and escorts out of the room. The doors closed, and the leader from Vacuo was the first to stand up and yell,

“What is the meaning of this? I demand to know….” Before he could finish his sentence, Lord Mortem was standing right in front of him, and started choking him and carried him up ten feet into the air.

“Know your place.” As he said this, he dropped the leader of Vacuo back down to his seat. The rest of the world leaders immediately got far more on edge, but not to the point that they were willing to speak out against their new oppressor.

“Now that I have your attention,” Lord Mortem said as he floated down to the ground, “I shall tell you how this world is now and forever going to function.”  
  


A couple of Order Troopers walked towards the airship that had just landed in their hanger, not sure why it was here. There had been no forewarning about any deliveries of troops or inventory, so their weapons were loaded and ready for whatever was in there. As the cargo door opened, they saw an Atlesian Knight bringing down three different crates labeled by different types of Dust.

“What is all this?” One of the guards asked.

“DUST TRANSFER FROM SECTOR 2814 TO COMMAND SHIP.” The knight said. The other guard then pulled out his scroll and scanned the slips of paper on the boxes.

“Checks out. All right then, move out. Here’s the instructions on how to get to the storage facility.” The guard then placed his Scroll over the face of the Knight, the screen blinked, and the knight began moving forward towards its destination. As they cleared the hangar, Evan dropped the illusion space and everybody checked the immediate area for security cameras and nearby guards. Christy then pulled up the map that they got from the guards and tried to figure out where they needed to go.

“Okay” Christy said as she zoomed in. “The command deck is up there. From the looks of things, that place will be heavily guarded. So we should all head up there as quickly as possible and get ready to input…”

“Get down!” Jacob hissed as he pulled everybody into one of the corners. As they peered out, they saw two guards carrying the weapons of the rest of Team JNPR.

“Where does the boss want these weapons again?” one of the guards asked as he punched a code into the door.

“He want’s them on the airship that’s taking the prisoners down to the meeting to try and intimidate the world leaders more than he already is.” The other said, as he made sure not to accidentally drop Ren’s weapons. As the door opened, they moved through and deeper into the ship.

“They’ve got our friends trapped here!” Nora said worriedly. “We need to bust them out!”

“What about the mission?” Jacob asked. “If we go too far off book, we then risk the danger of being discovered! And we don’t have much time before the main attack starts!”

“Any suggestions?” Christy asked as she re-activated the holo-map. “I mean, you are the leader of Team JCTB.”

“Ironwood placed you in charge of this op since you are our lead stealth member.” Evan said as he created another illusion space as more guards approached.

“It’s your call.” Christy looked over the map one last time, and zoomed in on the brig.

“Okay, here’s the plan.”  
  


Lord Hibernis stood tall on the bridge of his ship, looking over as one of the smaller ships flew towards another. He was completely bored, sick and tired of just simply watching over the military preparing for its grand display for the world leaders.

“I’m bored as well.” Lord Memoriare said as he walked next to Lord Hibernis. “After all that has happened, just simply dealing with bureaucracy is enough to drive one insane.”

“I honestly don’t know how Lord Mortem plans on letting Lord Aeris be in charge of an entire country without burning it down.”

“Are you kidding?” Lord Memoriare said with a smile on his face. “Vacuo was practically made for her kind of crazy! Full of people wanting to kill each other, monsters that want to eat them, or at least there used to be monsters.”

“Yes, ever since Lord Mortem got the power of the Wizard, the number of Grimm attacks has significantly decreased.”

“It makes sense. He can use them as….” But before Lord Memoriare could finish, a light flashed on the control panel, and popped up a message. “What’s happening Firma?”

“Somebody has taken out some of the weapons of the armory without authorization. We aren’t due to deliver the warriors from the Battle of Beacon for another half hour.” Lord Hibernis turned and started making his way towards one of the airships quick interior transports. “Keep things running up here Memoriare. I’m going to deal with this myself.” As the transport left, Lord Memoriare just stood there, dumbfounded.

“Oh sure. I wouldn’t want to do something. Just leave me here!”  
  


Christy quickly punched the code into the door leading to the brig and ran inside with several weapons in tow. She started placing the weapons in front of the respective cells.

“Christy!” Jaune exclaimed from his cell. “What are you doing here?” Christy rolled her eyes and kept moving forward.

“Do I really need to spell it out for you Jaune? Just get ready to wreck some havoc once we open up the cell doors. All right then, who has the um…glow-stick nunchucks?”

“That’d be me!” Christy turned around to see a cat girl faunus in the cell who looked like she was the internet personified.

“And you are….”

“Neon. Yes I know I seem a little out there, but that’s what makes life fun! Hey, do you like roller blading?”

“Okay….that’s random. Here you go. Just get ready to get moving before….”

“I thought I left you shattered and broken back at Beacon Academy child.” Christy stopped in her tracks and turned to see Lord Hibernis standing at the opposite end of the hallway.

“You know, what can I say?” Christy said with a smirk. “I die hard.”

“You only survived because your protector stopped me from finishing you off at the last second. This time, I will destroy all of you.”

“Yeah, good luck with that one. Evan! If you would be so kind?” As if on cue, all the prison doors swung open and all the prisoners rushed out and either grabbed their weapons or made a beeline for the exit opposite of Lord Hibernis.

“What should we do?” Pyrrha asked as she picked up her weapons using her magnetism.

“Jacob and Brooklyn are making a beeline for the bridge! Everybody should try to create as much chaos across the board as you can! Spread the enemy out thin!” Ren was right next to Evan when he pulled out an extra Scroll and handed it to Ren.

“The map of the entire airship is on here!” Evan said as he prepared his weapon for battle. “Stick together and get moving!” Ren nodded, gave a quick hug to Nora, and then headed out with the rest of the escaped prisoners. Lord Hibernis sighed in annoyance and pulled out his whip.

“Neither of you have the power to defeat me.” He said as he began walking forward.

“Why do you think we brought her?” Christy said as she spun her finger in a circle. On cue, Nora launched herself forwards and smashed her hammer right at the feet of Lord Hibernis, sending a tremor throughout the entire airship.  
  


Lord Memoriare had to grab onto a nearby chair to keep his balance as the airship shook. He looked around not sure what was going on, but then a split second later, all the alarms started going off.

“INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!” The computer screamed over the speakers. Soldiers immediately leapt up from their posts and rushed out the main doors and into the depths of the airship.

“All right!” Lord Memoriare said as he pulled out his chains. He pointed at a few soldiers still in the room and barked, “You three! On me!” But before he could leave the room, a few of the last remaining soldiers heading out the door were suddenly blasted back into the room. As the dust settled, Jacob and Brooklyn rushed in and started taking out everybody who was still in the room. Before Lord Memoriare could respond to what was happening, he had to block an incoming attack from Brooklyn that knocked him a few steps back. Gathering himself, he realized that he was the only one still standing on his side. He then saw Brooklyn and Jacob before him and finally got a good look at Brooklyn.

“You’re Angela’s kid, aren’t you?”

“How do you know her?” Brooklyn asked as she pointed her weapon at him, clearly growing angrier.

“We worked together. She was the one who came to me to make sure that you had no memories of her while you grew up. So that you could stay alive and the Order would continue to operate in secrecy.” Now clearly angry, Brooklyn rushed forward and started fighting Memoriare. Jacob was about to rush in, but Brooklyn yelled,

“Get the program installed! I’ll keep this guy busy!” Jacob was about to interject, but decided to do as she said and ran over to the nearest control console and plugged in the Scroll. As he did so, a series of codes and text boxes appeared on the screen. Not wasting any time, he immediately started typing away.

“How much time do we need Jacob?” Brooklyn asked as she blocked a ranged attack from Memoriare with her shield.

“Give me a few minutes!” Jacob said continuing to type away. “I just hope this gets uploaded in time for the ground attack.”  
  


Christy jumped off Evan’s back and unleashed a series of strikes onto Lord Hibernis’ body that it caused him to fall back a few feet. This proved to be problematic though as he stumbled right into the path of Nora’s hammer. As he went skyrocketing forward, he was met with Evan’s gauntlet clenched in a punch and hit him so hard that his entire body flashed for a split second, then he collapsed to the ground, having been completely drained of Aura. He was gasping for breath. His entire body was practically numb, he even felt like he might have been bleeding internally just slightly. He looked up at Christy with a look of pure anger on his face.

“You…. cheater….” he said slowly crawling forward. “You couldn’t beat me before so you went crawling back to your pathetic friends for help….” Christy stomped up to him and smacked him across his face with the handle of one of her axes.

“You broke me in two!” She exclaimed. “You almost took everything away from me! Well, this is what you tried to take away. And they aren’t too happy about that just like me.” Lord Hibernis laughed.

“Save me…. the childhood drivel. You don’t even have the guts to kill me.”

“Who said anything about killing you?” Christy said with a smirk. “Nora? Do the thing.” Nora smiled evilly, walked over to the frail body of Lord Hibernis, knocked him flat on his back, and slammed her hammer down with all her might on his legs. He screamed in pain, as his legs were now almost literally flat as a pancake.

“I’ve always wanted to do that!” Nora said as she placed her weapon on her shoulder.  


  
Brooklyn and Lord Memoriare continued to go at it. Neither one of them giving an inch. Jacob continued to type away on the control panel.

“I could really use some good news right now!” Brooklyn yelled as the next attack from Memoriare almost sent her flying across the room. Before she could gather herself, Memoriare had already launched one of his hooks towards her as a sort of pseudo ranged attack. Her scimitar couldn’t morph back into a shield in time and she was sent flying towards the front of the airship. Jacob was about three clicks away from finishing inputting the code, but was dragged away from it by one of Lord Memoriare’s chains. He couldn’t even catch himself, he was instantly dragged to the ground.

“Sorry kid.” Lord Memoriare said raising on of his hooks up for the kill. “Maybe in the next life.” But as he brought his weapon down, he was then knocked back by a golden shield. As Pyrrha retrieved her shield, she rushed forward to continue her attack on Lord Memoriare. Meanwhile, Jaune ran over to Jacob and helped him up while Ren rushed in to make sure that Brooklyn was all right.

“You okay Jacob?” Jaune asked as Jacob got to his feet. Before he could answer however, an alarm went off in his pocket. Not wasting any time, he ran back over to the control panel and immediately started typing away like a madman.  
  


General Ironwood looked at his clock, and motioned for his airship to move forward. As they did so, they hoped that nobody would recognize that something was wrong until it was too late for the enemy.

“Any word from stealth squad yet?” General Ironwood asked.

“No sir” the communications officer said. “They haven’t broken their radio silence.”

“Well they better hurry up. The cannons are going off soon and we won’t have the upper hand unless we get our androids back.”  
  


“Jacob, what’s going on?” Jaune asked as Jacob continued to type away.

“Explain later!” he yelled as he punched a few more buttons. Then, as if on cue, he hit the final button just as the cannons from General Ironwood’s ship started going off. With a smile on his face, he pulled out his Scroll, pressed a button and exclaimed, “General Ironwood! The code is in! Give the order for the ground crew to attack! We’ll finish up in here!”

“Good to hear from you Mr. Strohl.” General Ironwood said. “See you on the ground.” With that, he cut himself off, and Jacob could see the hangar doors on their airship open up and a bunch of troop transports started flying out. The Atlesian Knights were still under the control of the Order, but in a split second, Jacob could just make out that there face plates went from glowing red to glowing green. The instant they did so, they turned on the Order’s troops and immediately opened fire. With a smile on his face, he turned his attention to the control panel.

“What’s the plan Jacob?” Pyrrha asked as she put her weapons away.

“We are going to crash this airship into some of the other enemy airships.” Jacob said as he punched in a set of commands. “Give our guys a better fighting chance.”

“All right then, we should probably get off this thing!” Jaune said as he made a bolt for the door. Everybody else agreed and made their way out. Jacob stayed behind and grabbed the microphone for the ships speaker.

“All those who still fight for the Kingdoms, find friends and make your way to the hangar. We will have an airship waiting to take us down to the ground.” He hung up the microphone and started to leave before he noticed that Brooklyn was still on the bridge, standing over the body of Lord Memoriare.

“Brooklyn! We don’t have time for this! We have to go!” Brooklyn ignored him and continued to stand over the body of Memoriare. He smiled and evil grin and looked right into Brooklyn’s eyes.

“Do it. Avenge your mother. Take action for all I’ve done against your family.” Brooklyn raised her scimitar to his neck, but then returned it to bracelet form.

“I won’t kill you.” She said as she walked away. “But that doesn’t mean I have to save you.” As she and Jacob left, Lord Memoriare slowly got up and moved forward.

“I hate it when people quote stuff as their finishing line.”  
  


Natalie looked out the doors of the airship and saw the entire army of her friends rushing in to battle. She took a deep breath and moved in closer to the center of the airship. Miles placed his hand on her shoulder and smiled.

“You got this. I mean, you’ve already died once. Is there really anything left for you to fear?”

“Losing you guys.” She said lowering her head. “I can’t imagine my life without you guys.” Ruby smiled at Natalie’s comment, walked over placed her hand on Natalie's free shoulder.

“Don’t worry,” she said with a smile. “This time around, we’ll do it together.” Natalie looked around and saw the smiles of everybody confirming that they were behind her all the way. Natalie took comfort in this, but could still tell they were all nervous.

“Any suggestions for taking him down sis?” Yang asked as she moved her robot arm in a circle. Natalie fell silent. Then she looked up and said,

“All I know is that we need to weaken him to the point where some random mumbo jumbo can happen and we destroy the foundation of his power.”

“Seems easy enough.” Blake said drawing her weapon. “How tough is he?”

“Beats me.” Natalie said looking out the doors again. “When I fought him, he was still mortal. Now, he’s pretty much a god.” Everybody fell silent again and didn’t say anything again until they got closer to their target.  
  


“….and with that said gentlemen, you will effective immediately hand over the control of your nations to the Order of the Four Seasons.” Lord Mortem said. The leader of Atlas slammed his fist on the table.

“That’s absurd! How do you expect the rest of the world to respond to such outrageous demands?!”

“I can assure you, the Order of the Four Seasons is more than capable of….” But before he could finish, there was an explosion right outside the building. He looked over, then back at the world leaders.

“You see?” the leader of Atlas said standing up. “Just because you command great power doesn’t mean that they will listen to it. There will always be people who will fight back!”

“Save me your pathetic drivel of revolution. I’ll show you and the rest of this world what true power is!”


	39. Episode 3: Chapter 11: Vengeance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 11 of Episode 3 of Order of Seasons

“All units, attack!” As soon as those orders came from General Ironwood, Ty leapt from the dropship and rushed into battle. He was closely followed by all his friends and allies, and he even had air support from Coco who was lighting up the enemy with her gatling gun. But it was clear that Ty was a force to be reckoned with. His sword was slicing people left and right without giving it a second thought. There weren’t that many people who could actually stand up to his power. He could tell though, the enemy troops weren’t worried because they still believed they had control over the Atlesian Knights. In fact, when a small cell of Order soldiers saw Ty barreling right towards them, they tried hiding behind some of the Atlesian Knights. But Ty just smiled and continued moving forward. In the split second right before the Knights fired on Ty, their faceplate displays turned from red to green, and they turned and opened fire on the Order soldiers. Completely thrown off guard, the Order soldiers kept moving further and further back towards the government building. They were completely lost. On top of that, the command ship was starting to go up in flames and crash into some of their other airships, and everything was falling apart at the seams. Ty felt like he had won the lottery. He even got a chance to send a guy flying using his bazooka mode like a baseball bat. As he looked up however, he noticed that now standing before him was Leo Odi, his Aura Knives at the ready.

“So, another demon slayer. How appropriate.” Leo said mockingly.

“Do I know you?” Ty asked tilting his head to the side in confusion.

“Maybe not, but I am the person who beheaded your father.” Ty gripped his sword even tighter than before. “And I would hate to not have the full set.”

“Oh, you’ve got jokes now, do you?” Ty said clearly angry.

“More of a proclamation of death if you will.” Ty didn’t waste another second after Leo said that. He rushed forward and the two of them started fighting like there was no tomorrow. And for one of them, there wouldn’t be.  
  
  


Lord Mortem waved his hand and bound all the world leaders to their chairs with light energy.

“Remain here. I will soon bring you the heads of those….” But before he could finish, all of a sudden, the giant glass ceiling shattered and in dropped several warriors. During the split second he had, Lord Mortem could count six people falling through. One of them looked awfully familiar, but he didn’t recognize her until his buster sword was blocking her scythe.

“I thought I left you to die back at Beacon Tower.” Lord Mortem said.

“Yeah well, the afterlife seemed boring.” Natalie said with a smirk. “Plus, I wanted a rematch.” As soon as she finished saying this, she pulled the trigger and fired a shot right in Lord Mortem’s face. Ruby landed and immediately helped Natalie with fighting Lord Mortem, while before Miles, Blake, Nathan and Yang could join the fray, they noticed Adam and Lord Aeris running in through one of the side doors.

“We’re here to help Lord Mortem!” Adam yelled drawing his blade. But in a split second, he was met by one of Yang’s punches.

“Let’s take this outside,” she said launching Adam back into the room whence he came. Before Lord Aeris could even react, Blake had already leapt in front of her and sent her into the same room as Adam. The two ladies ran forward with Nathan in hot pursuit. Miles hesitated for a split second.

“Are you sure you don’t need any help Natls?” he asked.

“Just take care of those two!” Natalie yelled as she leapt backwards out of the path of Mortem’s sword. “We got this! Just find us when you’re done!” Miles nodded his head, and then rushed in after his friends, ready for whatever was waiting for him in the other room.  
  
  


Ty just continued to trade blows with Leo. He was surprised to see someone who seemed so weak be able to keep up with all his strikes.

“You’re good, I’ll give you that.” Ty said as he took another swing. Leo simply leapt backwards and prepared another strike.

“I’d say the same to you if this fight were actually close.” As he said this, he lunged forward and landed three strikes on Ty’s gut. Ty’s enhanced defense was still working, so that didn’t faze him in the slightest. Instead, he took the split second that Leo thought he had for Ty to recover to begin swinging his sword back around and send Leo flying into several Order troops. Before Leo could even try to get back up, Ty had already launched a barrage of rockets towards him, catching him in the explosion and almost completely depleting his Aura. As he got up, he could see Ty moving towards him quickly. Deciding to take one last gamble, Leo charged all his remaining aura into one of his knives and threw it straight at Ty. Not able to dodge out of the way in time, the blade hit dead center in his chest and went straight through his body. For a split second, it looked like he was going to just shake it off like normally did, but then he collapsed onto the ground clutching his chest where the weapon had struck. Leo smirked, and walked up to Ty’s body and held a knife to his throat.

“Like father like son I guess.” Leo said gloating. “I guess now I’ll have two heads to complete my collection.” But as Leo raised his knife to take Ty’s head, Ty simply took his sword and ran it right through the chest of Leo.

“Do you ever shut up?” he said as he stood up and threw the now limp body of Leo off his sword. He clutched his chest again and fell to one knee.

“Ty!” Ty turned to see Jacob and the stealth team along with Team JNPR running towards him. Christy immediately placed her hands on the wound and healed him without second thought.

“It’s fine Christy.” Ty said trying to stop her from healing him. “It just knocked out my absolute defense. My aura can heal me in time.”

“Still, better safe than sorry.” Christy said drawing her weapons. “What now?”

“I say we clean up all the remaining enemy troops and…..” but before Jaune could finish his sentence, there was a rumbling in the ground. As they all turned, they saw a giant wave of water completely rolling over and crushing the enemy Order soldiers. And riding atop that wave was Beanie.

“GET OUT OF MY WAY FOOLS!” Beanie yelled as he continued to completely dismantle the enemy forces. Everybody looked up at him in complete shock.

“Was he always this OP?” Ty asked with absolute confusion on his face.

“I mean, he had to climb the ranks to work with Ozpin somehow…” Pyrrha said as she threw her shield to knock out a stirring Order member without even looking at him.  
  
  


Nathan and Yang kept pushing to try and disarm Adam. Both Adam and Lord Aeris hadn’t really recovered from the surprise attack yet. Despite Miles having not joined them yet, Blake was holding her own against Lord Aeris.

“What took you so long?” she asked as Miles used one of his swords to block an incoming attack from Lord Aeris.

“Just making sure our fearless leaders are ready for what they’re getting themselves into.”

“Yes, their deaths!” Lord Aeris screamed as she launched a blast of air to knock the two of them backwards, and then did the same at Yang and Nathan so that Adam could regain his bearings. The two of them came together and went back to back. Their opponents regained their footing and got ready for another bout. Nathan and Yang launched themselves towards Lord Aeris, while Miles and Blake launched themselves towards Adam. Lord Aeris wasn’t able to keep her footing when Nathan and Yang attacked, and crashed through a wall into the next room. Adam on the other hand, stood his ground rather easily and knocked Miles back but not Blake. The two of them went toe to toe with their blades.

“You’ve improved a bit since last year.” Adam said as he locked blades with Blake.

“I kept moving forward. You just locked yourself in the past Adam.” Blake said as she used and after-image to leap back and charge in again.

“I serve the future. You serve the last dying remnants of an archaic world.”

“Yeah, I think I still like this world thank you very much.” Miles yelled as he leapt back into the fray.  
  
  


Yang blocked one of the spinning chakrams with her left gauntlet while Nathan rushed forward and landed a solid blow on Lord Aeris’ face. She collected herself and then unleashed a string of attacks similar to that of Blake when she and Weiss used the move Checkmate. Only this time, it was purely with blades of pure air. Yang was able to keep her footing, but Nathan was blown back into the other room.

“And here I thought cutting your arm off back there would do you in!” Lord Aeris said as she grabbed Yang’s right arm and locked it behind her back. “Guess I’ll just have to cut the other one off so you’ll finally learn!” But as she brought down her chakram, all it did was clang against metal.

“For somebody who has so much power,” Yang said as she detached her right arm and spun around, “You sure have a bad memory.” With that said, Yang punched Lord Aeris so hard that she flew out the building and to the ground below. She then reattached her arm and ran back into the other room to help the others.  
  
  


Adam blocked an attack from Blake’s katana, and punched Miles in the leg to keep him from attacking. It was clear that he wasn’t going to win this fight like this, so he sheathed his sword and started only pulling it out to block attacks, relying more on his own agility to dodge the incoming attacks.

“We have to defeat him now!” Blake exclaimed. “He’s preparing his final attack!”

“You think I don’t know that?” Miles said as he leapt up and tried to knock Adam down. “Just get the weapon away from him! That should help!” They tried to take down Adam, but he kept dodging and absorbing the attacks. But then, a surprise happened. Blake jumped up to try and strike Adam in the chest, but he elbowed her away, but in that split second, Miles launched himself up and managed to stab Adam in the arm, forcing him to drop his sword on the ground. But also in that split second, Adam punched Miles in the face and stole one of his swords. Blake tried to steal it back, but Adam managed to hit her with the hilt of the stolen sword and knocked her flat. Miles then started to fight back against Adam, but was quickly overpowered and knocked against a wall and disarmed.

“You never learned your lesson back in Aequo, did you kid?” Adam taunted. “No matter what you try to do, if you play the hero, everybody you care about will die. Maybe if I kill the woman you love, you’ll finally get the big picture.”

“You won’t take her away from me!” Miles said as he tried to get up but was held down by the point of the sword.

“Take her away from you?” Adam scoffed. “You took her away from me!”

“I didn’t even know she existed until a few months ago!” Miles said. “Besides, she left the White Fang because of what you have become!”

“You can talk all you want, but it won’t change the fact that you are not a hero, and you are going to die here.” Adam said raising the sword.

“You’re right.” Miles said. “I’m not a hero. I’m a distraction.” As soon as he said this, Adam’s sword cleaved right through his torso, slicing him cleanly in half. Not able to say anything, Adam simply dropped the sword and fell to the ground dead. Behind where his body used to stand was Nathan, Adam’s old sword in his hand. He dropped it and gave Miles a hand up.

“Thanks man.” Miles said as he picked up his stolen sword.

“He’s already killed all of Aequo. I won’t let him kill anybody else.” They gave each other a fist bump, then ran over to Blake and helped her up. As soon as she was up, Yang ran through the hole in the wall made from the fight against Lord Aeris.

“Everybody okay?” She asked as she ran into the room.

“We’re fine hon.” Nathan said. “You?”

“A scratch on the new arm, but other than that, I’m fine. We shouldn’t be wasting time!”

“She’s right.” Miles said heading back towards the doors they came in. “Natalie probably needs our help!”

“Lets get going!” Nathan yelled as the four of them rushed forward back into the room. They burst open the doors and saw the room a mess, Ruby unconscious against a wall, and Lord Mortem holding his sword at Natalie’s throat causing a collective yell of,

“Natalie!”


	40. Episode 3: Chapter 12: Shatter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 12 of Episode 3 of Order of Seasons

“Are you sure you don’t need any help Natls?” Miles asked.

“Just take care of those two!” Natalie yelled as she leapt backwards out of the path of Mortem’s sword. “We got this! Just find us when you’re done!” Miles nodded his head, and then rushed out the door that Yang had punched Adam through. Natalie then turned her attention back to Lord Mortem, who was clashing blades with Ruby. Natalie knew that the element of surprise wasn’t going to last long against him, so she immediately rushed forward, firing bullets at Lord Mortem in attempts to keep him off balance. And for the most part, it seemed to be working. Lord Mortem wasn’t able to keep up with both the speed of Ruby as well as the constant barrage of bullets from Natalie. Trying to regain his bearings, he leapt up into the air and hovered for a split second and concentrated on pushing his aura to two different directions. Not wanting him to finish doing whatever he was doing, Ruby launched herself skyward and attempted to slice him right in half. But in the split second before her scythe connected on his chest, he suddenly split into two separate beings. One of them flew down and immediately started fighting Natalie, the other grabbed Ruby in a chokehold and threw her down into the ground creating a giant crater. The two ladies got back on their feet and regrouped, and the twin Lord Mortem’s did the same.

“Did you really think that it would be that easy to challenge a god?” Lord Mortem said with a smirk.

“Actually,” Natalie said, “For a second there….”

“Don’t you dare….” Ruby said with an annoyed tone.

“Yeah. I kinda did.”

“I swear,” Ruby said pinching her forehead. “You’re turning more and more into my sister every day.”

“Must be the company I’m keeping.” The two chuckled, but then were sent flying into the wall from an attack by one of the two Lord Mortem clones.

“Despite becoming the most powerful being in the universe, people still think they can talk over me. Know your place.”  
  
  


“The battle has been joined.” Ozpin said gazing through the crack in reality.

“Any idea if the Spring girl can defeat him? Or injure him enough so that he can be broken?”

“As of right now, Lord Mortem may have given them an advantage in this battle.” Ozpin said as he weaved a string of magic signs in front of the crack, trying to keep it from spiraling out of control. “Zenoma has split his being into two entities. If they were forced back together, that may be the opening I need in order to disrupt the balance within his body.”

“And what happens to you in the process? I know you feigned ignorance with that girl Ozpin, but what really happens to you when you break up this harmony?”

“I sacrifice my right to exist. The world needs my aura in order to remain in balance, so my aura will become bound to the vessel, but the person I am will become bound to the afterlife. Similar to father.”

“Despite everything that has happened, you still fight for them Ozpin.”

“And I want you to continue that sister.”

“What?”

“When your aura is freed, then your soul will return to your body. You will continue to live on. And I want you to take over as headmaster of Beacon Academy.”

“What?”

“At least, after Qrow has passed on. He is currently the heir I have left the Academy to. So once he has passed, I want you to take over.”

“After all I’ve done, you would trust me to run the institution that I have sworn to destroy? Why Ozpin?”

“Because you are my sister. And despite what has happened over the last millennium, I believe that all it took for you to remember who you used to be was that little girl who believed in the light so much she passed up the afterlife in order to protect it.” Salem fell silent, not sure how to respond to this. She just simply sat there, watching her brother continue to fight to keep reality together.  
  
  


Ruby blocked an attack from Lord Mortem and tried to gain some ground, but Lord Mortem overpowered her and slammed her into the wall. Getting up quickly, Ruby ran straight at Lord Mortem, but instead of attacking her copy, she morphed into petal mode and went around him and re-appeared to strike the copy of Lord Mortem that was fighting Natalie, then the two of them stood back to back while the two Lord Mortem’s got up and got ready for another round.

“I’m willing to take suggestions at this point!” Ruby said as she cocked her rifle.

“What about the slingshot maneuver you and Blake tried once?” Natalie said as she split her weapon in two.

“How would that work?” Ruby asked firing a few shots trying to keep Lord Mortem at a distance. “We don’t have the rope portion of Blake’s weapon!”

“I was thinking we would both use the hook portion and go from there!”

“I get what your saying!” Ruby said as she changed cartridges in her weapon. “I’ve got the one on the right!” In the split second after she said that, Ruby launched herself forward and started fighting her copy of Lord Mortem. Initially looking like it was just another round of fighting, Lord Mortem got caught off guard when Ruby instead of using her scythe to block an attack of his, she instead went into petal mode and weaved around Lord Mortem and re-formed on the wall, launching herself and catching Lord Mortem in the hook of her scythe. Realizing what they were planning, the copy of Lord Mortem that was fighting Natalie attempted to fly up and avoid what was about to happen. However, Natalie managed to use one half of her weapon to launch herself in the air, then caught Lord Mortem with the other half and slammed him into the ground. Before he could get up, Natalie did the exact same thing that Ruby did with her scythe, rejoined the two pieces into one, and launched herself towards Ruby. The two of them were about to collide, but Ruby morphed into petal mode again and passed right through Natalie and the other Lord Mortem, leaving Natalie to throw the limp body of Lord Mortem into his copy, and when they collided, a bright light flashed, and they merged back into one, falling to the ground. What was happening to Lord Mortem’s body was interesting to say the least. His body was enveloped in light with cracks in it; similar to what happens when somebody has their aura depleted. Natalie didn’t waste any time when she landed and dealt three powerful blows to Lord Mortem, which caused him to glow even brighter.  
  
  


The crack in reality was glowing as brightly as the sun. Ozpin let out a deep breath and started walking towards it.

“Take care of the world for me, please Salem? This is my final request.” Salem didn’t say anything. She just stood there, not sure how to respond as her brother walked into the crack in reality. Then, right before Ozpin could make contact, he was pulled away by shadows that extended from Salem’s arms. She threw Ozpin away from the crack and started walking towards it herself.

“Salem!” Ozpin yelled as he got up. “Stop! What are you doing?!” Salem smiled as she continued to move forward.

“I’ve made a lot of choices in my lifetime Ozpin. And a lot of them were of my own free will. I did what I did because I hated what others did to my friends. And I’ve done so much harm the world will never trust me. But you trusted me. After all I had done, you were willing to trust me with the fate of the world. That’s why the world needs you Ozpin. Not me. So I’ll do one last thing to somewhat redeem myself. I’ll help you save your world.” As she said this, she made contact with the crack, and her entire being began to fade away.

“Why?” Ozpin said as he watched her disappear. “After all these years, why do this?”

“You tried to save me when I made my choice.” Salem said with a smile. “You never gave up on me, hoping that my time in solitude would change me. I’m sad to say that didn’t work, so let me help you one last time.” Ozpin fought back tears as the last bits of Salem faded from existence.

“I wish it was different sister. I wish I had been a better brother. I wish I did save you all those years ago.”

“You aren’t perfect Ozpin. We never were.” As the last few pieces of Salem faded away into nothingness, her final words touched Ozpin’s ears and he finally let his emotions go.

“I’ll tell Spring you said hi.”  
  
  


Natalie and Ruby stared at Lord Mortem not sure what to do. He was just sitting there, enveloped in light. And as he clutched his head in pain, he let out a scream as five orbs of light exited his body, and flew up into the sky and left Lord Mortem completely shrouded in dark energy. Natalie then walked over to him and placed her weapon at his neck.

“It’s over Mortem. You aren’t as powerful as you were before. Just give up and this can end peacefully.”

“Peacefully?” Lord Mortem said with an evil laugh. “Peace is an illusion. There is only control.” As he said this, he unleashed a large charge of dark energy that sent Ruby and Natalie flying to the opposite side of the room. He slowly got up, completely enveloped in darkness. “I should truly thank Salem,” he said with a smirk. “I take it that she sacrificed herself to disrupt my power. And on top of that, it was most likely Ozpin’s idea to try and break apart the union of power I had achieved. And Salem sacrificed herself so that he could live on. Fool. I have trained with her power before. I wielded a portion with the dragon and then the full power belonged to me for a time. Perhaps if Ozpin did sacrifice himself, I would be at a disadvantage. But the joke is on you. I’m still immortal, I still control power absolute, and I will use my immortality to find the pieces once again and reclaim what is rightfully mine!”

“Yeah, you managed to kill both Ozpin and Salem when they were at full power.” Natalie said getting up. “I think we might still have a chance here.”

“Yeah.” Ruby said cocking her weapon, ready to launch herself at Lord Mortem. “I’ve fought a Maiden before, and they aren’t that much!” With that said, the two of them rushed towards Lord Mortem, but he didn’t even flinch. He didn’t even take a step backwards to try and prepare for the attack. He just simply took his sword and swung it at his enemies, sending out an energy blade knocking them both back.

“Like I said,” Lord Mortem smirked as he walked over, “I’ve practiced with this power. I’m not like Cinder. I won’t waste any time in killing you. And this time, I’m going to make sure you stay dead.” He then swung his sword down, but Ruby had managed to recover in time for her to block it. The two of them traded blows for a few solid minutes. Ruby trying to use her speed to her advantage, but Lord Mortem was able to use the dark energy in his body as a sort of shield. Natalie finally managed to gather her bearings, but it was too late. Lord Mortem had landed a huge blow on Ruby and sent her flying into the wall, knocking her unconscious. And before Natalie could get up and over to her side, Lord Mortem fired another beam of dark energy, knocking Natalie up against the small wall that divided the center of the room and the seating area where all the world leaders were. She could feel her power fading. Her Aura was almost gone, she could barely hold up her weapon, and Lord Mortem was now standing before her with his weapon at her throat.

“Don’t worry,” he said menacingly. “I’ll make sure that I send Ozpin back to keep you company in due time.”

“Natalie!” Lord Mortem turned to see where the yell came from, and instantly had to defend himself from several shotgun rounds from Yang’s gauntlets. He was then knocked away from Natalie as Blake and Miles rushed him and started clashing their blades. Nathan ran over to Natalie and helped her back to her feet.

“Are you okay?” He asked sounding very concerned.

“I’m fine.” Natalie said as she picked up her weapon. “What about Ruby?” The two of them looked over and saw that Ruby still hadn’t moved yet. They ran over to her and tried to help her up.

“Ruby, are you okay?” Natalie asked. Ruby didn’t respond for a second, but finally started to regain consciousness. Nathan looked over and saw that while they were doing all right, Miles Blake and Yang clearly needed help. He then reached up to his com-link and turned it back on.  
  
  


Jacob threw three explosive dust knives towards a small troupe of soldiers. It was clear that the Order was fighting a losing battle, but they kept fighting all the same. Suddenly, his com-link reactivated and all he could hear was Nathan yelling,

“We’ve got Lord Mortem outnumbered in here! But we still need all the help we can get! Can anybody read me?!”

“I can hear you.” Jacob said responding. “I’ll get a few people in. We can’t spare many, but enough to help you win this fight.” Jacob then ran over to where Evan and the rest of Team JCTB were fighting back against Order soldiers.

“Did you all hear what went over the coms a second ago?” Jacob asked.

“Yeah, hard to miss.” Ty said as he used his bazooka mode to send several enemies flying. “Any ideas on how to get in quickly?”

“What if we did what we did against the Nevermore back in the Emerald Forest?” Brooklyn said as she turned her weapon back into bracelet form.

“That could work.” Evan said firing a few rounds at a group of enemies.

“Let’s do it now.” Ty said putting his weapon away. “Who’s going first?”  
  
  


Miles tried to block the attack, but despite managing to block the sword, the force of the impact sent him flying away from Lord Mortem. However, he quickly changed the pull of gravity on his body so that when he collided with the wall, it was as if he was landing on feathers, and then changed the direction of the gravitational pull so that he was instantly rocketing towards Lord Mortem and dealt a powerful blow that sent him flying into the blade of Blake who then sent Lord Mortem straight towards Yang who punched him straight up into the sky. Lord Mortem managed to regain his balance and was about to launch an attack in mid air, but all of a sudden, the giant glass dome above the room shattered again and before Lord Mortem could respond to what was happening, he felt two blades strike him in the back and send him flying to the ground. Christy and Brooklyn both landed respectfully after they landed their attacks. Lord Mortem, now clearly ticked off, attempted to send another bolt of dark energy towards his new attackers, but then in a split second, he was surrounded by yellow glowing knives that suddenly all went off and formed an electric cage surrounding him. He tried to leap out, but was met with the katanna blade of Jacob. The two of them clashed for three hits, but then it looked like Lord Mortem had the upper hand. He had a clear chance to slice Jacob right in half. Nobody could react to it in time he thought. But Jacob managed to parry the blow with relative ease as he then proceeded to stab Lord Mortem in the chest with a fire dust knife that sent him flying into and out of the electrical cage. Growing more and more annoyed, he tried to regain his bearings, but then lost them when he felt a punch to his gut. He could hardly make it out, but the distinctive gauntlet and spear of Evan made him easy to pinpoint. Landing several blows with his spear, Evan was able to completely disorient Lord Mortem. But before they could all gang up on him, Lord Mortem used the Aura around his body as a force push to knock everybody back and give himself a chance to regain his bearings. As he did so, Ty, Weiss, and all of Team JNPR came rushing in through the side door. As they all stood there, Lord Mortem cracked his neck and raised his sword up and pointed it straight at his opponents.

“I’ve come too far. I refuse to let a bunch of children take away everything I have built for a better world.”

“Yeah, you kind of lost your argument for a “peaceful world” when you killed our friend, okay?” Miles said as he spun his swords around and clashed them together creating a spark.

“Yeah, plus you were on the verge of destroying all of reality while you were the wizard, so I think killing you would do the world a favor.” Natalie said twirling her weapon around and slamming it into the ground. Lord Mortem simply looked at all of them and smiled, a single tear running down the side of his face.

“Why do they never understand? Why do they not realize how the world is slowly poisoning them? I will teach them. I will show them a better world.” As soon as he finished saying this, he rushed forward towards Natalie. But before his sword could swing down, Ruby had blocked the attack with her scythe. In that split second, Nathan threw his billy clubs at Lord Mortem’s head, knocking him back a few paces into the path of Nora’s hammer, which sent him skyrocketing into the ceiling. As he began to fall down, Blake tossed Yang one half of her weapon and the two of them used Bumblebee and knocked him flat on the ground where Jaune and Pyrrha were waiting with their twin sword combo. Ren rushed forward trying to keep the attack up, but Mortem managed to block his attack, and the two of them locked their blades. In that split second, Weiss launched several ice glyphs at Lord Mortem. He managed to deflect most of them, but one of them managed to hit and freeze his leg. He tried to free himself, but he let his guard down to do so, allowing Jacob and Brooklyn to take their swords and smack him into the twin axes of Christy. She then proceeded to duck out of the way as Evan threw his spear right into Lord Mortem’s face, causing him to lose balance. Wiping away the small cut of blood he sustained on his cheek, he was then bombarded by a flurry of sword strikes from Miles and Ty, knocking him down to one knee. Miles then held up his sword to Lord Mortem’s throat.

“Surrender” he said in a solemn voice. “It doesn’t have to end like this.”

“You dare…. to threaten a god!” As he said this, Lord Mortem immediately poured out all his Aura into one massive pool of darkness that stretched out and ensnared every single person he could see in the entire room. Nobody could move. They were completely trapped by the darkness. Lord Mortem then got up and walked to the center of the room.

“No more kings! No more elected officials! No more fools who accept no solutions as a solution! No more anarchist fools who wish to disturb order! No more…ack!” In that instant, he clutched his abdomen in pain and in doing so, released all those he had captured under his grasp. Hardly able to say anything, he turned around, and re-appearing behind him, was Natalie. Having been invisible for a large portion of time, she now stood behind the crumpled body of Lord Mortem, her scythe behind her since she completed her swing, and the silver blade now was covered in crimson, having landed a perfect hit on Lord Mortem.

“And you accused us of talking too much.” Natalie said as she dropped her weapon to the ground. Lord Mortem fell to his knees, still clutching where Natalie had attacked.

“I….could have saved everyone….I would….have restored order……” with that last statement, he fell to the ground, all the Aura that he possessed slowly flowing back towards him like a small puddle of water on a hill. Natalie then turned around and walked back to her friends.

“You could have saved the world a long time ago if you really wanted to.”  
  
  


The Atlesian troops were still rounding up the last few Order members when Ozpin finally arrived on Vytal. He actually used magic to fly to Vytal believing that the battle was still going on. But he was pleasantly surprised when he saw that the battle was over. He walked into the main government building and saw Natalie and company still sitting there. Christy was attending to the wounds of those who needed healing the most, while everybody else started at the motionless body of Lord Mortem, not sure what to expect. The body seemed dead, but the Aura of Salem still remained attached to his body. Any form of blood was now gone, in its place was the liquefied form of Aura that surrounded his body. Every once in a while, a small Grimm would pop out and before it even had a chance to roar, anyone near enough with a sword would decapitate it.

“What’s happening to him?” Ty asked as he beheaded another new Beowolf.

“The Aura of my sister completely bound itself to his body.” Ozpin said as he started drawing several symbols on the floow with his cane. “It isn’t like the Maidens Aura which changes from life to life. Our Aura is bound to our very being. So as a result, he can’t die, but at the same time, he will never be able to function again. You managed to strike him when he removed all his Aura from his body, resulting in him being mortal. It’s a complicated process I won’t get into right now. The point is, his body has become a simple host for the Aura, but without the life force in order to give it purpose.”

“So all he can do now is just summon Grimm?” Jacob asked. “What do we do? Just have a rotation of guards constantly keeping watch and destroying whatever Grimm come out of the ooze?”

“That is one possibility,” Ozpin said as he began weaving different signs with his hands. “However, the simple fact is, there will always be people who will desire that kind of power, or want to harness it for themselves. So to avoid any problems with that happening, I will send him to where I sent my sister. Only this time, instead of a mastermind pulling the strings, the Grimm will become far less focused and will act purely on instinct. It isn’t the most perfect solution, but better than any alternative.” As he said this, he weaved several signs and Lord Mortem’s body began to fade from existence and disappeared all together.  
  
  


Lord Aeris and Lord Memoriare sat down on one of the few escape rafts they managed to salvage. The unconscious and broken body of Lord Hibernis took up the center of the raft.

“What do we do now?” Lord Aeris asked as she paddled them away from the island.

“We shall engage the Rome Has Fallen protocol once we reach our temporary base of operations in Mantle.” Memoriare said. “We are the last in the chain of command of the Order. We didn’t have all the important pieces at Vytal. We still have control of some of the kingdoms. We won’t go down without a fight.” 

“But what about Lord Mortem? Do you really think we can do everything without him?”

“For a while, absolutely. But he still has the power of Salem within him. If we are going to get it back, we need to find a way into the dark realm. If I remember correctly, Salem had a council of four that dispersed into the world after Cinder failed to bring them the Fall Maiden.”

“I think I know a guy,” Lord Aeris said with a chuckle. “Tyrian was always a lot of fun to be around.”

 

 

 _For years afterwards, those three would go on to be some of the greatest enemies that Teams RWBY, JNPR, NEMN, and JCTB ever fought. But that’s a story for another time._  


 

  
 **3 Days Later**  
 **Beacon Academy**  
  


 

The final preparations were complete. Ozpin pulled the lever and all the small boats containing those who had fallen during the battles of Beacon and Vytal floated down the mighty river towards the great falls. The final boat to leave contained the body of Glynda Goodwitch, which Ozpin pushed out into the river himself. As the boats floated down the stream, once they were far enough away, Ruby and Natalie took their weapons, and fired at a very specific target on Glynda’s boat. Their bullets hit the target perfectly, and went on to ricochet to several similar targets on all the boats. Every time a bullet hit one of the targets, that boat caught fire and lit the interior of the boat like a funeral pyre. Once all the boats were lit, everybody in attendance hoisted their weapons or fists to the sky. A final salute as the boats began to tip over the falls and dive into their final rest.  
  


 

 **2 Days Later**  
 **Atlas Academy**  
  
  


 

“…and while we mourn those who made the ultimate sacrifice, today we celebrate those who stand before us today, for risking everything to keep the world safe. And while we may still have some battles left to complete before everything returns to normal, let us take today to celebrate that when all hope seemed lost, these people behind me still stood tall in face of all that and brought us our first victory of many against the Order!” As soon as General Ironwood finished his statements, everybody in the audience erupted into applause as every single soldier or student who fought at the Battle of Vytal walked up on stage and received their medals of honor. As soon as everybody walked up on stage, Professor Ozpin took the stage and Ironwood handed him the microphone.

“One year ago, Vale was faced with a great threat. And while many students risked everything in order to protect Beacon, eight students stood out and helped bring balance to the world. A year passed, they made friends, and not just Vale, but all of Remnant was under attack from an even greater threat. And not only the eight from last year, but their eight new friends as well answered the call once again and saved the world from a great threat. They not only went up against immeasurable odds, they went up against a god. One that not even I could stop. And they succeeded. Please come forward, Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Team NEMN, and Team JCTB.” Everybody applauded when the team names were called and they all stepped forward. General Ironwood then handed Ozpin a box filled with sixteen medals of pure gold, emblazoned with the emblem of Vytal in its center. Professor Ozpin took each of the medals and placed them on the necks of each one of the sixteen students.

“Let this be a reminder to the world that when face to face with a god, it was the strength of our children who rose up and saved the world.” The crowd gave them all a standing ovation and cheered for five straight minutes. Natalie almost turned invisible from embarrassment, but managed to stay visible long enough for the ceremony to end.  
  
  


Natalie stood up on the main deck of the airship that everybody was traveling on. General Ironwood thought it would be a great idea to throw a special party for everybody who fought in the Battle of Vytal away from the press so that everybody could at least have one evening to relax without the entire world trying to interview them about what happened. But she had had enough of people for the day, so she decided to clear her mind by taking in the fresh air.

“Come on, I can’t be the only one getting a serious sense of déjà vu right now.” Natalie turned around to see that the voice belonged to Miles. He had just gotten off the elevator and walked up next to her.

“You aren’t wrong.” Natalie said with a chuckle. “Although this time around, it’s nice to not have you launching rockets at me.” They both laughed, and looked up at the moon.

“It’s crazy how much has happened and it hasn’t even been a full year yet.” Miles said as he sat down on the ground. “And I thought the upperclassmen had a rough time last year.”

“Well, that’s the nature of this world isn’t it?” Natalie said sitting down next to him. “Something is always trying to destroy something.”

“Not always. I mean, I got to meet all of you, right? That wasn’t destructive.”

“Well, it wasn’t for the lack of trying.” They both laughed again, and then Miles stood up and punched a few buttons on his Scroll.

“What are you doing?” Natalie asked standing up.

“Well, we’ve come this far, and this place seems pretty nostalgic.” A few seconds later after Miles said that, a locker landed on the deck, opened up and revealed his swords. He pulled them out, and spun them around. “What do you say to one last sparring match?” Natalie smiled, pulled out her Scroll, and her locker with her weapon landed on deck a few minutes later as well.

“Let’s see if I can go two for two up here,” Natalie said with a smirk. She grabbed her weapon; the two of them took their battle stances, and rushed towards each other.


	41. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue to Order of Seasons

  
_Life Moves Forward_  
_Heroes Age and Change_  
_Conflict May Always Be Inevitable,_  
_But Throughout Time We Find Moments of Peace_  
  
  
  
**10 Years Later**  
  
  
  
_Two Bound To Each Other_  
_Their Bond Only Growing Stronger With Each Passing Year_

“…and that concludes our lesson of the Vacuo Uprising from seven years ago. Any questions?” As Evan looked around the classroom, he saw one of his students holding up her hand. “Yes Violet?”

“Professor Hahn, why exactly did the Order attempt to disrupt the Oasis Restoration Movement in Vacuo? The textbooks say it’s due to the amount of Dust mining opportunities, but the Schnee Dust Company had already started taking steps back from illegal Dust fracking activities after Ms. Schnee took over the business.”

“You are correct. The Schnee Dust Company did indeed pull out of Vacuo to avoid environmental damage to the oasis” Evan said picking up a paintbrush from his desk. “But you see, Ms. Schnee was still out and about in the world, serving the Kingdoms as a Huntress. The Vacuo Uprising took place about two years before the Atlesian Revolution, and as a result, it created some controversy surrounding the Order and the company.” As he said this, he started creating a large portrait showcasing Weiss and her friends fighting back against Order soldiers. “The Schnee Dust Company is one of the largest companies to vocally give their disapproval of the Order despite the Order having had their hand in several different business dealings even before the Battle of Vytal. As a result….” But before he could finish, the class bell sounded and the students started filing out. “My apologies. I didn’t realize that class was almost over.” With a wave of his hand, his artwork faded and evaporated in an instant. “I will make a video later tonight and post it on the class page if people are interested in learning more.” He started collecting his things and started heading for the door. Walking out into the hallway, he was surprised to see Christy standing there.

“I thought you were going to be escorting Team BLCK on a mission to Mountain Glenn?” Evan said shocked.

“You sound annoyed to see me.” Christy said jokingly, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Evan then smiled, then returned the kiss to his wife on the lips this time around.

“So what exactly happened?” Evan asked as they started walking back to their office.

“Well, I finished my lecture on the Great War quicker than I thought I would, so I let my class out early. I was getting my stuff ready for the mission to Mountain Glenn, when Professor Ozpin came up to me and said that Dr. Oobleck had some studies he wanted to conduct in that general area, and asked if I would hand the mission off to him.”

“Why’s that? You’re both history professors. What’s the difference?” Christy sighed then explained,

“Ozpin still trusts Oobleck a bit more than he does me. I mean, I can’t blame the guy. He’s been around forever and we’ve only worked with him for about three years.”

“Has it really already been that long since Ozpin offered us the job?”

“It really is crazy. I never expected this kind of job. Especially not after the whole fiasco of the Atlesian Revolution.”

“Well, at least Weiss is able to keep things in check up there.”

“I just hope she can keep it together” Christy said stopping to take a drink of water. “Running a company and a combat school is hard enough. I think I even saw Pyrrha with some stress lines the last time we talked, and she’s just the head of a combat school!”

“Ozpin pretty much runs a school, a Kingdom, and a secret circle that keeps the entire world safe, so we don’t have much to complain about.”

“Well, you’re not wrong.” The two of them laughed, reached their office, and Evan started putting his stuff on his desk while Christy started making a pot of tea.

“Oh yeah,” Christy said as she put the kettle on the little mini stove, “put on the calendar that we’re meeting up with everybody at the beach on Patch in two months.”

“Really? That’s awesome! Did Ruby finally convince Miles and Blake to take a break from their constant fighting?”

“Actually, they weren’t the ones who were the most difficult to pin down….

  
_Three Forged by Fire_  
_Family Struggles Only Made Them Stronger_  
_Now Travel the World in Defense of the Greater Good_

“Okay.” Pyrrha said as she wrote down the information in her notepad. “Thanks for the Dust supply Weiss. I’ll get Jaune in touch with the finance people here at Haven to get your company the compensation.”

“That won’t be necessary Pyrrha.” Weiss said on the video monitor. “Consider us even for you and your friends standing with me during the Atlesian Revolution.”

“Weiss, really. You’ve been too kind to all of us. You don’t have to do this, we would be more than happy to pay.”

“I’ve already sent the shipment and I’ve got it all paid for from my personal bank account. I hope this helps your school move forward Pyrrha. Excited to see you at Patch in a few months!” With that said, Weiss signed, off, leaving Pyrrha alone in her office at the top of Haven tower. She looked out and saw an airship land on the docks nearby and a smile worked up on her face. Before she could even stand up, Jaune rushed in almost out of breath.

“Pyrrha! It’s…friends…. the three of them…. barging in…it’s…” Pyrrha laughed at her husband’s grand attempts to keep his composure despite being short of breath. She stood up and placed her hand on his shoulder.

“I just saw them land Jaune. Why don’t you go down and bring them up?” Jaune nodded his head and started running for the elevator.

“And take your time please? You know they are incredibly patient.”

The elevator doors opened and Jaune walked in with Jacob, Ty and Brooklyn in tow. Pyrrha minimized all her file windows and walked over to greet them.

“It’s been too long.” She said with a smile as she gave Jacob a hug.

“Likewise.” Jacob said returning the gesture. Pyrrha then went around and gave both Ty and Brooklyn hugs as well, then they all went over and stood around her desk.

“So what brings you to Haven if you don’t mind me asking?” Pyrrha said as she sat down. “Usually, you three are so busy with your regular duties as Huntsmen that you rarely come into the city.”

“We were in the area and thought we would stop by and say hello!” Brooklyn said as she placed her Scroll on the table. “I mean, it’s like you said, it’s been so long.” There was a bit of an awkward pause before Pyrrha sighed and stood up.

“Jacob, are you sure there isn’t something you aren’t telling me?”

“It’s just as Brooklyn said.” Jacob said sheepishly. “In the area, thought we’d say hi! Is it wrong for cousins to say hi to one another?” Pyrrha sighed again, then looked straight at Ty.

“Ty? Tell me the truth please.” Ty rolled his eyes and exhaled,

“All right, since you two chuckleheads won’t tell her I will.” He then opened up Brooklyn’s Scroll and pushed a few buttons causing a mug shot and a police report to pop up. “We’ve been trying to figure out where the Council of Four for the Order makes their base of operations, and we believe that Dr. Watts here can give us an idea of where to look.”

“What connection does he have with the Order?” Jaune asked walking towards the picture of Dr. Watts.

“As far as we know, Dr. Watts doesn’t have any connections with the Order as far as alliances go.” Jacob said standing up. “But he was apart of Salem’s council years ago, and as a result, worked with Tyrian, one of the new leaders of the Order. We think that through Dr. Watts, we can find Tyrian and the rest of the Order.”

“I see. And what do you need my help with?” Pyrrha said as she started looking over the police report.

“His last known location was here in Mistral.” Brooklyn said pulling up a map on her phone. “As far as we can tell, this part of the world has strong ties with the Dark Realm, so it makes sense why they would meet here. And according to some of our sources, he’s still here, just hiding away until he shrivels up and dies or something of that nature.”

“We need access to some of the public records and household listings.” Jacob said leaning forward on Pyrrha’s desk. “We can’t access this on our own. Not even our medals from the Battle of Vytal are enough to get what we need. We need your seal of approval as Headmistress of Haven Academy.” Pyrrha sighed, then tapped a few icons on her desk and pulled up some official documents, then swiped them over onto Brooklyn’s Scroll.

“There you go,” she said. “With that, you should be given access to whatever you need. Good luck to you all.” Brooklyn picked up her Scroll, then sent the information to both Ty and Jacob.

“Thanks Pyrrha.” Jacob said giving her the warriors bow. “We should be on our way.” They turned to leave, but then Jaune spoke up.

“You sure you guys don’t want to get dinner together?”

“We have to find them Jaune.” Ty said pressing the button to call for the elevator. “If we are going to get this done, we have to do it now.”

“But you said that he was just lying around just waiting to die, right? You should come over to our place tonight! I’m sure the kids would love to see you guys again!”

“We really should get going.” Jacob said walking into the elevator as the doors opened. But before they could close, Pyrrha, caught the door using her polarity and walked into the elevator with them.

“You guys are meeting us on Patch in two months, right?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, we were kind of forced to by Yang and Nathan.” Ty rubbed his shoulder awkwardly. “I swear, she dislocated my shoulder with that last punch!”

“Look, you three have been running all over Remnant keeping the world safe. We can’t thank you enough for that. But you should take some time to rest. You just got here. Jaune and I could get the guest beds ready for you all in no time flat. Plus, tonight is pancake night!”

“Pancakes for dinner?” Brooklyn said with a confused look.

“It’s Nora and Ren’s recipe!” Jaune said excitedly. “We did it when we were still a team back in Beacon, but our kids love it so much we kind of made it a monthly tradition to have pancakes for dinner. Come on! It’ll be fun!” The three of them pondered this for a minute, then Jacob sighed.

“We’ll be hanging out in the town square. We need to restock some of our supplies, so we’ll get that done while you two finish up here. Just send us a text when you guys are leaving. We know where you live.” Pyrrha smiled when she heard this, and released the doors.

“That sounds lovely.” She said with a smile as the doors closed and the elevator descended down the tower. She then looked at Jaune and gave him a smirk.

“Are you sure there’s enough ingredients to accommodate three more people?”

“Hey!” Jaune said defensivly. “Feeding those five kids is tough enough! I made sure that we had more than enough ingredients in case Xia decides that she wants to try and break Nora’s record in a single sitting!” They both smiled and laughed, and gave each other a quick kiss and held each other for a few minutes.

“I can’t wait to see everybody in a few months.” Pyrrha said with a sigh.

“Me neither.”

 _Tragedy Broke Them_  
_Reality Hurt Them_  
_But Together They Found Strength_  
_A Rhythm That Nobody Could Break_

Nathan sat calmly in his chair looking out the window as the clouds rolled over the forests of Patch. It was a rare peaceful day. That all changed when he heard an explosion from the other room. He quickly jumped up and ran over to see his daughter running around the house with his wife’s shotgun arm.

“YANG?! HONEY?! GET DOWN HERE PLEASE?!” Nathan yelled at the top of his lungs as he ran over and grabbed the arm from the little girl. “Bad Ember! You know you aren’t supposed to play with mom’s combat arm!” Yang ran into the room with worry on her face.

“What happened? What’s going on?”

“Ember got a hold of your combat arm again.” Nathan said picking up the now crying little girl. “I thought you said you put it in the lock box upstairs in our room?”

“I did! I even made sure to use the lock with the passcode on it this time!” The two of them went upstairs and were surprised to realize that the box was still completely locked up.

“How in the heavens did you do that kiddo?” Nathan asked Ember.

“Well, I just reached into the box and pulled out the arm.” Ember was clearly still a little shaken up by the shouting, so Yang ruffled her hair a little bit.

“It’s okay hot stuff! Could you show mommy and daddy how you did it?”

“Are you sure I won’t get in trouble?” Ember said with clear signs of fear in her voice.

“Ember,” Nathan said with a smile. “While we seriously need to work on you remembering things we told you before about your mother’s arm, we both want to see how you got her arm out of that box. To us, this seems almost impossible to accomplish! So here.” Nathan then took Yang’s combat arm and gave it to Ember. “Just put it back the same way you took it out!” Ember then took the arm, leaned over to the box, and then what happened next astonished the both of them. The arm phased through the box, as well as a small portion of Ember’s arm, and then a second later, she pulled her hand out, and the arm dropped down in the box with a thud. Nathan and Yang looked at each other shocked. Not sure how to react.

“Am I in trouble?” Ember said with a few tears in her eyes. Nathan and Yang looked at her and laughed.

“You aren’t in trouble sweetie!” Nathan said holding her up in the air. “Your mother and I couldn’t be more proud of you!”

“You’re going to be a great Huntress someday kiddo!” Yang said giving Ember a wink.

“You really think so?” Ember said as her face started to light up.

“Definitely!” Nathan said. “Your eighth birthday is coming up soon! Which means we can get started on training you! I’m so excited!”

“Are you sure I can do everything you say I can?” Ember said once again. “I mean, you and mom are heroes! How can I ever live up to that?” Nathan smiled, then put down Ember and got on one knee so he could be face to face with her.

“Ember Raven Grover, you were named after two of the greatest people to ever walk the world of Remnant. They both had struggles, and they had doubts as well. But they never stopped moving forward despite the fact that sometimes the world didn’t give them any recognition. That necklace you wear?” as he said this, he pointed at the silver necklace around Ember’s neck. “The woman who gave me that necklace inspired me to never give up. And now that has been passed down to you.”

“Mom? Why is dad getting all preachy again?” They both laughed, and then Yang picked her up with her cyborg arm.

“I don’t know. He never was this preachy back when we first met. Heck, he wasn’t even this preachy when he proposed to me! He just gave me the ring, I said yes, and we just went from there! Heck, he hardly talked at all that first night after we got married.” Yang said this with a wink directly at Nathan.

“Well, there was so much ‘bang’ that we didn’t need to talk.” They both laughed, leaving Ember looking at them awkwardly.

“You two are dirty…..”

 _Haunted by Decisions of the Past_  
_Distraught, They Ran and Fought_  
_But Together, Their Shadows Melded_  
_Conquering Their Fears and Moving Forward_  
_Into A Brand New Dawn_

As they got off the boat, they realized that a few Grimm had managed to sneak onto the docks and were causing a bit of a ruckus. They drew their weapons and were about to attack, when a few nearby sailors ran over and defeated the Grimm with relative ease. They both sighed and put their blades away.

“Honestly, I’m surprised to see that the Grimm reached Menagerie despite the efforts by the Atlesian military. I thought the Grimm were mostly stuck around Atlas given some of the negative emotions still smoldering after the Revolution a few years ago.” Miles said as he walked towards the mainland.

“I’m surprised that there are so many people around to take care of it now!” Blake said as she linked her arm with his. “Last time I was here, I had to take out a whole horde of Grimm by myself until help arrived. It was a bit of a mess.”

“Sounds like it. It does help though that the Grimm don’t really have anyone to give them any sense of direction.”

“Speaking of which, any word on the actions that the Order seem to be taking in Mantle?”

“It’s all just rumors according to Ty when I talked to him last. I think they’re in Mistral right now looking for some loose ends that one of the new leaders forgot to tie up to get some answers.”

“That sounds like a good idea. I just wish we could find the last pieces of the White Fang so I can finally put that whole mess behind me.” Blake said this clearly upset, her head was lowered a bit as they walked down one of the streets. Miles then wrapped his arm around her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

“It is behind you. Our job now is to hope that Qrow and the others can clean up the last few pieces that are mostly insignificant at this point. Sienna Kahn is pretty much out of followers. Ever since Velvet started the White Faun organization, things have been really looking up for Faunus rights.” Blake smiled, and wrapped her arm around Miles’ waist.

“You’re right. Besides, today should be a happy day! I mean, I just can’t wait to tell my parents!”

“I just hope your dad doesn’t tear me limb from limb when he finds out.” Blake laughed as Miles adjusted his collar nervously. They reached their destination, and the two of them smiled, and knocked on the door together. After a minute of awkward silence, they were about to knock on the door again, but then the door swung open and Blake’s father stood in the doorway, towering over the two of them.

“Hey you two! I haven’t seen you since the ceremony!” he said excitedly. Before they had a chance to say anything, he already had them trapped in a bear hug and pulled them into the house. “You should have told us you were coming!”

“Well, we knew how much you like surprises!” Blake said trying to breathe through the crushing arms of her father. He finally released them both, and then ran into the other room

“Darling! Blake and Miles are here!” A second later, Blake’s mother walked into the room with a huge smile on your face.

“You two are just in time! I just put a kettle on! Would you two like a cup of tea?”

“That’s very kind.” Miles said. “Thank you.”  
  
  
  
  
“As far as we know, it means that the White Fang is grasping at straws now.” Miles said taking a sip of tea from his cup. “They’ve devolved from a serious terrorist group into more of a group of bandits. Most of their strongest members jumped ship and joined the Order following the stunt that Sienna Kahn pulled in Vacuo during the uprising. But the few that are as delusional as Kahn himself is remained, and that’s the big issue going on right now in the Kingdoms.

“I see.” Ghira said placing his cup on a coaster. “So what does this mean for Ren and Nora out in the villages?”

“As of right now, they’re coordinating with Professor Ozpin and Professor Port to try and put together a team of Huntsmen and Huntresses to track them down.” Blake said adding a few cubes of sugar to her tea. “Miles and I were supposed to lead the mission, but after some recent events, we decided to step down. We asked that Qrow would take over the mission.”

“Wait, recent events?” Kali leaned forward, kind of confused. “What happened? You didn’t get injured, did you?”

“No, no. Far from it.” Blake said sounding anxious. She started blushing extremely hard, then Miles placed his hand on her hands. She looked up at him, and saw his reassuring yet nervous smile. She couldn’t help but chuckle. She then took a deep breath, but didn’t let go of Miles’ hand. Their rings made a small ting sound in the process.

“Mom, dad, something wonderful has happened.”

 _In the Beginning, they were but Children_  
_Simply Dreaming of a World Where They Could Help_  
_Each of Them Opposites of the Other_  
_One Lived in Fear, the Other in Love_  
_But Together, They Bring Out the Best in One Another_  
_And Move Forward Not As Children, But as Heroes and Best Friends._

As the airship landed, Ruby and Natalie stepped out and walked into the main lobby. They were then greeted by a woman in a white outfit and nurse’s hat.

“Welcome” the lady said bowing in the traditional fashion. “I trust your trip was a pleasant one?”

“About as normal as we expect just about every trip on airships these days.” Natalie said cracking her neck. “So how does this work? Is there like a room full of kids and I just pick them out or something?”

“Natalie, I thought you went over this with your husband.” Ruby whispered in her ear. “You went over a brochure of the kids you want to meet and potentially adopt.”

“Oh yeah. Well then, who am I meeting today?!”

“A few children.” The nurse said. “Please wait here, I’ll get some paperwork prepared for you.” The nurse then turned and entered the building, leaving Natalie and Ruby alone together.

“Thanks for coming with me today Ruby.” Natalie said. “My husband wanted to come, but his mission lasted longer than expected.”

“It’s no problem Natls.” Ruby said. “I just wish General Ironwood’s doctors were able to find a solution for your problem.”

“The years haven’t been kind to me and my husband.” Natalie said with a tear in her eye. “But at least I can still be a mother to those who need it most. It’s almost like I’m doing something similar to what Ember did for me and Nathan almost.” The two of them smiled as the nurse returned and handed Natalie a document which she filled out. The nurse then directed them to a room where there was a table with five kids playing around. Three girls and two boys. They walked into the room, Ruby sat down outside while Natalie went inside to meet them. As soon as Natalie entered the room, the children’s faces lit up. They ran over, said hi to the newcomer, and they all began having a fun time together.

 

 

 

 

The older kids were completely enthralled by Natalie’s weapons. But Natalie was busy playing peek-a-boo with one of the younger kids using her invisibility semblance. After a few more minutes, she said goodbye to the kids and headed back into the hallway.

“AHHHH!” Natalie exclaimed in excitement. “I just want to hug and squeeze them all!”

“I know how you feel.” Ruby said. “That’s how I felt when I first held my child with Oscar. But remember: you only have so much money to pay the agency with. Even with the yearly grants we get from the World Council for everything we’ve done.”

“I know I know. It’s just so hard to pick one out though.”

“Well, out of all of them, who would you want to spend the rest of your life with?”

“Well, if I had to pick…..”

 

 

 

 

There was a knock on the door, and Arri sprang up and opened it up excitedly.

“Yes?” She asked trying to contain her joy.

“Hey Arri!” Natalie said with a smile. “How would you like to come home and live with me?” Arri tried to hide how excited she was, but it was clear that she couldn’t contain it. She threw herself into the arms of her new mother, and cried tears of happiness. And then she jumped back, and said,

“Can I ask one favor though?”

“What’s that?” Natalie asked. Arri then took her by the hand and led them down the hallway towards the infant wing, with Ruby following close behind. Turning into one of the rooms, she then led them to a crib where a baby girl sat there, completely wrapped perfectly in her cloth. Her skin was a bright white, and her eyes a deep red.

“Can you adopt her as well please?” Arri said as she looked at her new mother with puppy dog eyes. Ruby and Natalie were a bit confused.

“Why do you want her to adopt this baby out of all the other children here?” Ruby asked getting down on one knee.

“I don’t know” Arri said. “I just feel like she deserves a happy family and I feel like a big sister to her. I can’t really explain it. It’s something about her eyes. They just make me feel happy inside.” Ruby and Natalie looked at each other, a little concerned.

“Do you even have enough money to handle an eight year old and a baby?” Ruby asked concerned.

“Well, maybe I could convince Ozpin to increase the amount of the yearly grant, and plus, if they both go to Beacon, then we would save a fortune on tuition. Heck, I think Ozpin told me that he wouldn’t even charge us admission at all if any kids of my and your teams enrolled at his school.”

“That seems a bit too generous.” Ruby said pacing back and forth a bit. “I mean, he already hurt the school’s finances a ton with enrolling both of us and your brother without having to pay tuition. Imagine what happens if Ember and some of the Arc kids decide to enroll at Beacon at the same time.” Natalie nodded in agreement, then walked over to look at the baby once again. Looking closer, she saw something in her eyes that made her remember something. A person who stood tall and seemed larger than life, yet stood next to Ozpin like they were family.

“I’m adopting her.” Natalie said picking up the baby.

“Are you sure?” Ruby asked scratching her head. “You and your husband planned on only one kid. You don’t even have a baby crib yet!”

“I could call your sister. I don’t think she’s going to need the one she has now since Ember is too old for it.”

“Actually,” Ruby said walking forward, “Yang called me the other day. She’s pregnant again. She’s waiting to surprise Nathan and Ember on Ember’s birthday.”

“Sheesh. Are they trying to top Jaune and Pyrrha with a kid count?”

“I doubt it. But anyways, if you think that adopting the baby is a good idea, I’ll roll with it. Heck, I’ll even give you some extra cash to help you and your husband get started.” Ruby said with a smile.  
 

"Thank you so much Ruby!” Natalie said with a huge grin on her face. “That sound good Arri?” They both looked down to see that Arri was asleep, having gotten bored with waiting for her to decide. They both laughed, picked up Arri, and walked to the front desk.

“This is going to be tough at first,” Ruby said, “But if I know you and your family, I feel like you and your husband can accomplish anything.” Natalie smiled, and opened the door for Ruby.

“I know. We’ve been doing it for ten years now.” They reached the front desk, and the clerk was surprised to see them carrying the baby in their arms.

“Are you adding another child to your adoption?” she asked pulling up a screen and started calculating a total.

“I am.” Natalie said. “I would like to adopt Arri, and….” Realizing that she didn’t even know the baby’s name yet, Natalie checked the name on the paper attached to the back of the baby.

“I would like to adopt Hera.”

 

 _Time Continues to Move Forward_  
_Not Slowing Down For Anyone._  
_Things Keep Changing_  
_But the Reuniting of Friends and Family_  
_Can Remind Us of How Beautiful and Important_  
_Friends Can Be_  
  
  
  
**Two Months Later**

Nathan got up from his couch when he heard a knock on the door. Walking over, he saw Ember phasing through the ceiling and making a beeline for the door as well.

“Aunt Natalie and Uncle Verum are here! So is Aunt Ruby and Uncle Oscar” she yelled excitedly. Throwing open the door, she immediately jumped up and gave Ruby a hug.

“Oof!” Ruby exclaimed taking a few steps back. “You’ve gotten bigger since I saw you last kiddo!” She set Ember down, and walked in to give Nathan a hug. Ember was about to full on tackle Natalie as well, but then realized that she was holding a baby in one hand, and the hand of a girl who looked about the same age as Ember in the other.

“Hey kiddo!” Natalie said letting go of the other girl’s hand to give her a hug. “How’s life on Patch?!”

“It’s fun, but kind of boring also. I mean, I got to visit Uncle Ozpin in Vale a while ago, but I want to see the rest of the world!”

"I want to see the world too!” Ember looked over to get a better look at the girl who spoke up. Looking closer at her, she had green eyes, and was wearing a small flower in her hair.

“Who are you?” Ember asked tilting her head to the side in confusion.

“I’m Arri!” she exclaimed extending her hand for a handshake. “According to my parents, you’re my cousin Ember!”

“Cousin?” Ember took a second to process this; confusion was all over her face. “Daddy? What’s a cousin?”

“It’s somebody who’s the child of an aunt or uncle and is related to you.” Nathan yelled from the other room.

“I don’t really get it.” Ember said scratching her head.

“It’s okay, I don’t understand it either!” Arri said smiling and placing her hands behind her back. “So until we do, want to be friends?” Ember pondered this for a second, but then Yang placed her hand on Ember’s shoulder.

“Go for it kiddo!” she said with a smile. “You might be surprised how awesome having a friend can be!” Ember was a bit hesitant, but then shrugged her shoulders and ran outside and over to the small play fort that Nathan and Yang had built for her as a child.

“Come on!” Ember said calling out to Arri. “This place is awesome!” Arri ran over and joined Ember, leaving the adults to catch up and say hi.

“Man! You’re starting to get a pretty serious bump sis!” Ruby said placing her hand on Yang’s baby bump. “Did the doctors give you an estimate of when the baby is coming?”

“They said in about six months, so Nathan and I have been getting ready for that. Speaking of babies, how’s life with the little one here!” Yang said pinching Hera’s cheek.

“It’s been going good!” Natalie said patting Hera’s head. “She’s been an absolute angel! We haven’t really had any incidents involving diapers or crying with her whatsoever! It’s like she’s older than she really is!”

“So when is everybody else getting in?” Ruby asked walking into the kitchen and grabbing a glass of water for herself and then pouring one for Oscar.

“The Arc’s and the three stooges are arriving via a private airship in a little bit.” Nathan said as he grabbed a cooler from the pantry and started filling it with different cold food items. “Weiss is taking her private airship to pick up Beanie, Evan, Christy, and Ren and Nora. Miles and Blake are coming in on a ferry from Menagerie.”

“It seems like those two have been spending a lot of time on that island.” Natalie said. “I thought for sure they would be the ones to lead the charge on the attack that lead to the destruction of the White Fang.”

“Yeah, Uncle Qrow told me it was for good reason, but he wouldn’t tell me what reason.” Ruby said placing her used glass in the dishwasher.

“Maybe they’ll tell us today?” Yang said adjusting one of the loose screws on her cyborg arm. “Man, I hate this older model, but it works great for the beach.”

 

 

 

 

Nathan shielded his eyes as the airship kicked up a large cloud of dust next to the house. Once it cleared, the doors opened and out walked the entire Arc family and the three warriors. Nathan walked up and gave them all hugs.

“Great to see you guys again!” he said with excitement. “How’s life?!”

“About as well as it could be.” Jacob said grabbing a pack of drinks from the airship cargo hold. “Where’s everybody else?”

“They all went down to the beach already. The kids were getting a bit antsy, so the parents headed down with them and got things set up.”

"I’m excited to meet the children that Natalie and Verum adopted!” Pyrrha said as she used her magnetism to pick up a grill. “I’m sure the kids will all love them!”

“Well, let’s get going!” Nathan led the way to the beach. When they arrived, everybody was excited, the kids started playing together, and hugs were shared all around. While this was going on, another airship landed back on the edge of the forest right by the beach. The doors slid open, and out stepped Beanie and everybody else.

“Hey guys!” Beanie said walking forward and giving people handshakes. “Long time no see!” Evan and Christy were the next two to get off the airship, after that Weiss, then Ren and Nora followed.

“We even managed to pick up a few extra people as well!” Nora said excitedly. “Their ferry got into port early!” Everybody then turned to see Miles stepping off the airship. Then Blake got off the airship, with Miles offering her a hand down. But then, everybody’s collective jaws dropped when they realized Blake was clearly pregnant.

“What?!” Natalie exclaimed trying to contain her excitement. Everybody started crowding around the two of them and bombarded them with either questions or stomach rubs.

“How far along are you Blake?” Christy asked, her eyes wide with excitement.

“About three months now.” Blake said placing a hand on her stomach. “Miles and I have been going back and forth between our home in Vale and my parent’s home in Menagerie to try and get ready for the child.”

“You should have told us!” Natalie said excitedly. “We would have loved to help you out with this!”

“You two were busy with your own children, as are Pyyrha and Jaune, Nathan and Yang are getting ready for another child of their own, Christy is busy with her classes, much like Evan, and we hardly ever see Ty, Jacob or Brooklyn these days.” Miles said wrapping his arm around Blake. “So, since I don’t have any family to go back to for advice about this, we decided that Blake’s family would be the best solution.” Nathan was clearly holding back from making some random joke at the expense of Miles and Blake, so Miles spun around and grabbed Nathan by the shirt and exclaimed,

“Unless the next words out of your mouth are ‘congratulations’ or ‘I’m happy for you’, I will send you flying out five miles into the ocean.” Nathan then backed off, smiling sheepishly.

“Congrats Watson! I guess you and Blake finally got past the awkwardness and got busy!”

“Can I throw him out to sea for that one?” Miles asked Blake leaning over next to her ear.

“I say let him live for now.” She said with a smirk. “He oversteps his bounds, then you can toss him out to sea.” After everybody finished gawking over Blake and Miles’ future child, they all settled down and had an amazing day. The kids played in the water, some of the adults joined them, while others stayed on the beach and enjoyed good food and company. As the day went on, the kids started to tire out. All the parents took their kids back to Nathan and Yang’s house and helped put them to bed or at least a temporary bed in case their families would leave after the night. Everybody else just stayed out on the beach and shared stories and recounted old memories underneath the stars. Natalie looked up and smiled. She didn’t know what the future had in store, but she was excited nonetheless.

 _Time Has Passed_  
_Warriors Have Aged_  
_And While They Still Protect the World_  
_Soon it will be Time to Give Way_  
_To the Next Generation_  
  


**17 Years Later**

 

 

 

 

Hera was a bit slow to get up. She rolled out of bed and opened up the blinds and let in the sunlight. She got dressed, and walked downstairs. Pouring a bowl of cereal, her older sister Arri walked in and joined her.

“How’d you sleep sis?” Arri asked as she got a pot of coffee going.

“I slept fine.” Hera said eating a spoonful of cereal. “I just had another one of those weird dreams.”

“The one with the dark woman?”

            “Yeah.”

“Have you told mom or dad yet?” Arri asked as she got out some bread for toast.

“Not yet.” Hera said taking another bite of cereal. “I think I’m going to wait until I get on a team before telling them. I mean, maybe I should talk to Uncle Ozpin. Sometimes I see him in my dreams.”

“Do you see anybody else?”

“Sometimes I see you.”

“Me?” Arri almost dropped her mug when she heard this.

“Well, not you exactly. I mean, the girl doesn’t look exactly like you, but you both have the same eyes. It’s a little weird.”

“Well, whatever. Get ready to go. We still have to pick up Gray from our aunt Ruby and uncle Oscar's place, and we have to pick up Aurora from the Watson’s place.”

“Thanks for giving us a lift to orientation sis.” Hera said as she finished her cereal. “I know that right now isn’t the easiest of times for you. Did Beanie specify why he wanted Team BEAT (Bovia Brown, Ember Xiao Long, Arri Grover, Terra Violetta.) on this particular mission?”

“He didn’t. But it doesn’t matter. I have more than enough time to take my little sister, our younger cousin, and our friend to their first day of school! Now go get ready! We don’t have all day!” Hera smiled, put her dishes away, and then ran off to her room and got dressed. They then got into their personal airship and headed to Patch and picked up Gray Grover, who was waiting for them at the doorstep of his house. After picking him up, they swung by the apartment complex where Aurora lived. Instead of waiting for them to land, she just jumped right into the airship from her bedroom window, her mother looking on with worry, but also some happiness.

“Have a good first year at school honey!” Blake said waving goodbye to her daughter. Aurora returned the wave and took a seat next to Gray and Hera.

“Hey guys!” Aurora said as she put on her seatbelt. “How’s life?!”

“Well, apart from being scared out of my pants right now, I’m doing just great.” Gray said as he placed a cold towel on his forehead.

“I’m doing all right.” Hera said giving Aurora a fist bump. “How’s Daniel doing?”

“He’s doing his own thing. He told me the other day that he wants to go into filmmaking as a career instead of being a Huntsman.”

“How did your parents react to that?”

“Actually, they were both pretty cool about it. Mom said she was happy that we lived in a world where he could do whatever he wanted despite being a Faunus, and Miles was just happy that he was following his own path instead of the one everybody expected him to follow.”

“Your parents are the coolest.” Hera said with a smile.

“Please. Your parents helped win the Battle of Vytal! And your mom dealt the finishing blow!” Aurora said excitedly. “I think that gives you a leg up on my parents.”

“Well, at least your parents don’t constantly make bad puns.” Gray said pulling out his Scroll and some ear buds. “I’m going to be so happy when I don’t have to deal with that for nine months.”

“Hey kids!” Arri yelled from the cockpit. “We’re here!” The airship touched down right by the docks and the doors opened wide. Gray and Aurora got out right away, but Hera stayed behind to give her sister one last hug.

“I love you sis.” Hera said with tears in her eyes.

“You’ll do great.” Arri said. “I’ll probably see you around on campus from time to time. Just take care of yourself.”

“Any suggestions going into my first year here?”

“I know it isn’t the easiest thing in the world to pull off, but bunk beds really gives you a ton of free space in the room.” They both chuckled; Hera gave Arri one last hug and got off the airship. Hera watched as the airship took off and headed towards the Forest of Forever Fall. She then picked up her bags and joined her friends.

“You guys ready?” Aurora said with a smile.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Gray said tightly clutching his backpack.

“This is the first step towards something truly special.” Hera said. The three of them took their first steps forward and headed straight for the amphitheater, ready for whatever lied before them.

 

 

_Roll Credits_

 

 

 

**RWBY**

**Order of Seasons**

 

 

 

 

**The End**


End file.
